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BOOKS BY RUPERT a HOLLAND 


All *Ro«nd Our House 


Historic Adventures 


Historic Boyhoods 


Historic Events of Colonial Days 


Historic Girlhoods 


Historic Heroes of Chivalry 


Historic Inventions 


Historic Poems and Ballads 


Neptune's Son 


Refugee Rock 




Lafayette 



LAFAYETTE 

For Young Americans 



By 
RUPERT SARGENT HOLLAND 

Author of ** Historic Boyhoods,* 
" Neptune* s Son" etc. 




PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, 1922, by 
George W. Jacobs & Company 






All rigfiti reserved 
Printed in U. S. A. 



AUG 121922 



eaA68l697 



Publisher's Note 



Much of the material in 
this book has already ap- 
peared in Lafayette, We 
Come. This new volume 
omits the part that dealt 
with the War of 1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 8, 
and adds new chapters deal- 
ing with Lafayette's 
adventures in the United 
States from the arrival of 
the French fleet under 
Rochambeau to the sur- 
render of Cornwallis at 
Yorktown. 



To 

Those Men of the Great Republic 

Who Answered 

The Call of Lafayette 

Lover of Liberty 



Contents 

:hapter page 

I. The Little Marquis of France . . 9 
II. "Wake Up! I'm Going to America 

TO Fight for Freedom !" . . 27 

III. How Lafayette Ran Away to Sea 47 

IV. The Young Frenchman Reaches 

America 65 

V. "I Will Fight for American Liberty 

AS A Volunteer!" ... 84 
VI. Lafayette Wins the Friendship of 

Washington .... 104 

vii. rochambeau arrives .... 125 

VIII. A Narrow Escape . . . .145 

IX. Fighting Through the South . . 167 

X. "CoRNWALLis Has Surrendered!" . 187 

XI. The Marquis Aids the United States 

in France 208 

XII. How Lafayette Sought to Give 

Liberty to France . . . 227 

XIII. Storm-Clouds of the French Revo- 

lution 249 

XIV. Lafayette in Prison and Exile . . 280 
XV. In the Days of Napoleon . . . 303 

XVI. The United States Welcomes the 

Hero 327 

XVII. The Lover of Liberty .... 342 



ILLUSTRATIONS 
Lafayette Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Washiugtou 90 

Valley Forge 106 

Eochambeau 142 

Louis XYI 230 

Marie Antoinette 262 

Lafayette 306 

Mount Vernon 336 



THE LITTLE MARQUIS OF FRANCE 

In the mountains of Auvergne in Southern 
France, in what was for many centuries called 
the province of Auvergne, but what is now 
known as the department of Haute-Loire, or 
Upper Loire, stands a great fortified castle, 
the Chateau of Chavaniac. For six hundred 
years it has stood there, part fortress and part 
manor-house and farm, a huge structure, built 
piecemeal through centuries, with many tow- 
ers and battlements and thick stone walls long 
overgrown with moss. Before it lies the valley 
of the Allier and the great rugged mountains 
of Auvergne. Love of freedom is deeply 
rooted in the country round it, for the people 
of Auvergne have always been an independ- 
ent, proud and fearless race. 

In this old Chateau of Chavaniac there was 
bom on September 6, 1757, the Marquis de 
Lafayette. He was baptized the next day, 
with all the ceremonies befitting a baby of such 



10 LAFAYETTE 

high rank, and the register of the little parish 
church in the neighboring village records the 
baptism as that of " the very noble and very 
powerful gentleman Monseigneur Marie-Jo- 
seph-Paul- Yves-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier de 
Lafayette, the lawful son of the very noble and 
very powerful gentleman Monseigneur Mi- 
chel-Louis-Christophle-Roch-Gilbert Dumo- 
tier, Marquis de Lafayette, Baron de Vissac, 
Seigneur de Saint-Romain and other places, 
and of the very noble and very powerful lady 
Madame Marie-Louise-Julie Delareviere." 

A good many names for a small boy to 
carry, but his family was very old, and it was 
the custom of France to give many family 
names to each child. He was called Gilbert 
Motier for short, however, though he was ac- 
tually born with the title and rank of Marquis, 
for his father had been killed in battle six 
weeks before the little heir to Chavaniac was 
born. 

The family name of Motier could be traced 
back to before the year 1000. Then one of the 
family came into possession of a farm called 
the Villa Faya, and he lengthened his name to 
Motier of La Fayette. And as other prop- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 11 

erties came to belong to the family the men 
added new names and titles until in 1757 the 
heir to the old chateau had not only a long 
string of names but was also a marquis and 
baron and seigneur by right of his birth. 
There were few families in Auvergne of older 
lineage than the house of Lafayette. 

The little heir's father, Michel-Louis, Mar- 
quis de Lafayette, had been killed while lead- 
ing a charge at the head of his regiment of 
French Grenadiers in the battle of Hasten- 
beck, one of the battles of what was known as 
the Seven Years' War in Europe, which took 
place at about the same time as the French 
and Indian War in America. Although only 
twenty-four years old Michel-Louis de Lafay- 
ette was already a colonel and a laiight of the 
order of Saint Louis and had shown himself a 
true descendant of the old fighting stock of 
Auvergne nobles. Now the small baby boy, 
the new Marquis, succeeded to his father's 
titles as well as to the castle and several other 
even older manor-houses, for the most part in 
ruins, that were perched high up in the moun- 
tains. 

For all its blue blood, however, the family 



12 LAFAYETTE 

were what is known as " land poor." THe little 
Marquis owned large farms in the mountains, 
but the crops were not very abundant and most 
of the money that had come in from them for 
some time had been needed to provide for the 
fighting men. Fortunately the boy's mother 
and grandmother and aunts, who all lived at 
Chavaniac, were strong and sturdy people, 
willing to live the simple, healthy, frugal life 
of their neighbors in the province and so save 
as much of the family fortune as they could for 
the time when the heir should make his bow at 
court. 

Without brothers or sisters and with few 
playmates, spending his time out-of-doors in 
the woods and fields of Chavaniac, the young 
Lafayette had a rather solitary childhood and 
grew up awkward and shy. He was a lean, 
long-limbed fellow with a hook nose, reddish 
hair, and a very bashful manner. But his eyes 
were bright and very intelligent; whenever 
anything really caught his attention he quickly 
became intensely interested in it, and he was 
devoted to all the birds and beasts of the coun- 
try round about his home. 

Some of these beasts, however, were dan- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 13 

gerous; there was a great gray wolf that the 
farmers said had been breaking into sheepfolds 
and doing great damage. The boy of eight 
years old heard the story and set out, sword in 
hand, to hunt and slay the wolf. There is no 
account of his ever coming up with that par- 
ticular monster, but the peasants of the neigh- 
borhood liked to tell all visitors this story as 
proof of the courage of their young Mar- 
quis. 

But the family had no intention of keeping 
the head of their house in this far-off province 
of France. He must learn to conduct himself 
as a polished gentleman and courtier, he must 
go to Paris and prepare himself to take the 
place at the royal court that belonged to a son 
of his long, distinguished line. His family 
had rich and powerful relations, who were 
quite ready to help the boy, and so, when he 
was eleven years old, he left the quiet castle of 
Chavaniac and went to a school for young no- 
blemen, the College du Plessis at Paris. 

Lafayette's mother's uncle, taking a liking 
to the boy, had him enrolled as a cadet in one of 
the famous regiments of France, " The Black 
Musketeers," and this gave the boy a proud 



14 LAFAYETTE 

position at school, and many a day he took 
some of his new friends to see the Musketeers 
drill and learn something of the Manual of 
Arms. The company of other boys, both at 
the College du Plessis in Paris and then at the 
Academy at Versailles, as well as the interest 
he took in his gallant Black Musketeers, made 
Lafayette less shy and awkward than he had 
been at Chavaniac, though he was still much 
more reserved and thoughtful than most boys 
of his age. He learned to write his own lan- 
guage well, and his compositions in school 
showed the practical common sense of his coun- 
try bringing-up. He wrote a paper on the 
horse, and the chief point he brought out in it 
was that if you try to make a horse do too 
many things well he is sure to get restless and 
throw you, a bit of wisdom he had doubtless 
learned in Auvergne. 

The boy Marquis was at school in Paris 
when, in 1770, his devoted mother and the rich 
granduncle who had had him appointed a cadet 
of the Musketeers both died. The little La- 
fayette was now very much alone; his grand- 
mother in the distant castle in the mountains 
was his nearest relation, and, thoiiffli onlv a 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 15 

boy of thirteen, he had to decide important 
questions for himself. But the granduncle 
had been very fond of the lad, and in his will he 
left Lafayette all his fortune and estates. The 
fortune was very large, and as a result the boy 
Marquis, instead of being only a poor young 
country nobleman from Auvergne, became a 
very rich and important person. 

Immediately the proud and luxury-loving 
society of the French court took a great inter- 
est in Gilbert Motier de Lafayette. Every 
father and mother who had a daughter they 
wished to marry turned their attention to the 
boy. And Lafayette, who, like most boys of 
his age, paid little attention to girls, was beset 
with all sorts of invitations to parties and balls. 

In Europe in those days marriages were 
arranged by parents with little regard to the 
wishes of their children. Sometimes babies of 
noble families were betrothed to each other 
while they were still in the cradle. It was all 
a question of social standing and of money. 
So Lafayette's guardians put their heads to- 
gether and looked around for the most suit- 
able girl for him to marry. 

The guardians chose the second daughter of 



16 LAFAYETTE 

the Duke d'Ayen, Mademoiselle Marie- Adri- 
enne-Fran9oise de Noailles, a girl twelve years 
old. The Duke was pleased with the proposal ; 
the Marquis de Lafayette would make a most 
desirable husband for his daughter. But the 
little girl's mother had strong ideas of her own. 
When the Duke told her of the husband se- 
lected for Marie- Adrienne she objected. 

" It is too great a risk to run for Adrienne," 
she said. " The Marquis de Lafayette is very 
young, very rich, and very wilful. He seems 
to be a good boy, so far as his standing at 
school and his conduct in society are con- 
cerned ; but with no one to guide him, no one to 
look after his fortune and hold him back from 
extravagance and foolishness, without a near 
relative, and with his character as yet un- 
formed and uncertain, our daughter's mar- 
riage to him is out of the question, and I will 
not agree to it." 

Both the Duke and the Duchess were 
strong-willed; Adrienne's father insisted on 
the match and her mother opposed it more and 
more positively. At last they actually quar- 
reled and almost separated over this question 
of the marriage of two children, neither of 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 17 

whom had been consulted in regard to their 
own feelings. At last, however, the Duke 
suggested a compromise; the marriage should 
not take place for two years, Adrienne should 
not leave her mother for three years, and in the 
meantime the Duke would look after the edu- 
cation of the boy and see that he became a 
suitable husband for their daughter. 

This suited the Duchess better. " If the boy 
is brought up in our home where I can see and 
study him," she said, " I will agree. Then, 
having taken all precautions, and having no 
negligence wherewith to reproach ourselves, 
we need do nothing but peacefully submit to 
the will of God, who knows best what is fitting 
for us." 

The shy boy came to the Duke's house and 
met the little girl. Adrienne was very attract- 
ive, sweet-natured, pretty, and delightful 
company. Before the two knew the plans 
that had been made concerning them they 
gi'cw to like each other very much, became 
splendid companions, and were glad when they 
learned that they were to marry some day. 
As for Adrienne's mother, the more she saw 
of the boy the better she liked him; she took 



18 LAFAYETTE 

him into her house and heart as if he were her 
own son, trying to make up to him for the loss 
of his own mother. The Duke kept his agree- 
ment. He saw that Lafayette was properly 
educated at the Academy at Versailles where 
young noblemen were taught military duties 
and that in proper time he obtained his com- 
mission as an officer in the royal regiment of 
the Black Musketeers. 

Then, on April 11, 1774, Lafayette and 
Adrienne were married. The groom was six- 
teen years old and the bride fourteen, but those 
were quite proper ages for marriage among 
the French nobility For a year the young 
husband and wife lived at the great house of 
the Duke d'Ayen in Paris, still under the 
watchful eye of the careful Duchess, and then 
they took a house for themselves in the capital, 
going occasionally to the old castle of Cha- 
vaniac in Auvergne. 

The boy Marquis never regretted his mar- 
riage to Adrienne. Through all the adven- 
tures of his later life his love for her was 
strong and enduring. And she was as fine 
and noble and generous a woman as Lafayette 
was a brave, heroic man. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 19 

Rich, a marquis in his own right, married to 
a daughter of one of the greatest houses of 
France, Lafayette had the entrance to the 
highest circles at court, to the innermost circle 
in fact, that of the young King Louis XVI. 
and his Queen Marie Antoinette. And never 
was there a gayer court to be found; the youth- 
ful King and his beautiful wife and all their 
friends seemed to live for pleasure only; they 
were gorgeous butterflies who flitted about the 
beautiful gardens of the Palace at Versailles 
and basked in continual sunshine. 

But the boy of seventeen, son of a line of 
rugged Auvergne fighters, men of independ- 
ent natures, did not take readily to the un- 
ceasing show and luxury of court. Balls and 
dramas, rustic dances and dinners and sup- 
pers, all the extravagant entertainments that 
the clever mind of the young Queen could de- 
vise, followed in endless succession. True it 
was that some of the courtiers had the fashion 
of talking a good deal about the rights of man 
and human liberty, but that was simply a fash- 
ion in a country where only the nobles had lib- 
erty and the talk of such things only furnished 
polite conversation in drawing-rooms. To 



20 LAFAYETTE 

Lafayette, however, liberty meant more than 
that; young though he was, he had seen enough 
of the world to wish that there might be less 
suffering among the poor and more liberality 
among the wealthy. The constant stream of 
pleasures at Versailles often gave him food for 
thought, and though he was very fond of the 
King and Queen and their youthful court, he 
had less and less regard for the older nobles, 
who appeared to him as vain and stiff and fool- 
ish as so many strutting peacocks. 

Sometimes, however, for all his thoughtful- 
ness, he joined whole-heartedly in the revels 
the Queen devised. On one midsummer night 
Marie Antoinette gave a fete at Versailles, 
and Lafayette led the revels. The Queen had 
declared that she meant to have a fete chant- 
pefre in the gardens that should be different 
from anything the court of France had ever 
seen. All her guests should appear either as 
goblins or as nymphs. They should not be re- 
quired to dance the quadrille or any other 
stately measure, but would be free to play any 
jokes that came into their heads. As Marie 
Antoinette outlined these plans to him Lafay- 
ette shook his head in doubt. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 21 

" What will the lords in waiting say to this ? " 
he asked, " and your Majesty's own ladies? " 

The pretty Queen laughed and shrugged 
her shoulders. " Who cares? " she answered. 
"As long as Louis is King I shall do what 
pleases me." 

Then a new idea occurred to her and she 
clapped her hands with delight. " I shall go to 
Louis," she said, " and have him issue a royal 
order commanding every one who comes to the 
fete to dress as a goblin or a nymph. He will 
do it for me, I know." 

King Louis was too fond of his wife to deny 
her anything, so he issued the order she 
wanted, much though he feared that it might 
affront the older courtiers. And the courtiers 
were affronted and horrified. The Royal 
Chamberlain and the Queen's Mistress of the 
Robes went to the King in his workshop, for 
Louis was always busy with clocks and locks 
and keys, and told him that such a perform- 
ance as was planned would make the court of 
France appear ridiculous. 

Louis listened to them patiently, and when 
they had left he sent for Marie Antoinette and 
her friends. They described how absurd the 



22 LAFAYETTE 

courtiers would look as nymphs and goblins 
and the King laughed till he cried. Then he 
dismissed the whole matter and went back to 
the tools on his work-table. 

So Marie Antoinette had her party, and the 
gardens of Versailles saw the strange spectacle 
of tall, stiff goblins wearing elaborate pow- 
dered wigs and jeweled swords, and stout 
wood-nymphs with bare arms and shoulders 
and glittering with gems. The Queen's 
friends, a crowd of hobgoblins, swooped down 
upon the stately Mistress of the Robes and 
carried her off to a summer-house on the edge 
of the woods, where they kept her a prisoner 
while they sang her the latest ballads of the 
Paris streets. The court was shocked and in- 
dignant, and the next day there was such a 
buzzing of angry bees about the head of the 
King that he had to lecture the Queen and her 
friends and forbid any more such revels. 

As the older courtiers regained their influ- 
ence over Louis the young Lafayette went 
less and less often to Versailles. He was too 
independent by nature to bow the knee to the 
powdered and painted lords and ladies who 
controlled the court. Instead of seeking their 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 23 

society he spent more and more time with his 
regiment of Musketeers. But this did not 
satisfy his father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, 
who was eager for Lafayette to shine in the 
sun of royal favor. So the Duke went to the 
young Count de Segur, Lafayette's close 
friend and cousin, and begged him to try and 
stir the Marquis to greater ambition. 

The Count, who knew Lafayette well, had 
to laugh at the words of the Duke d'Ayen. 
" Indifferent! Indolent! Faith, my dear mar- 
shal, you do not j^et know our Lafayette! I 
should say he has altogether too much en- 
thusiasm. Why, it was only yesterday that he 
almost insisted on my fighting a duel with him 
because I did not agree with him in a matter of 
which I knew nothing, and of which he thought 
I should know everything. He is anything 
but indifferent and indolent, I can assure 
you!" 

Pleased with this information, and feeling 
that he had much misunderstood his son-in- 
law, the Duke made plans to have Lafayette 
attached to the suite of one of the princes of 
France, and picked out the Count of Pro- 
vence, the scapegrace brother of Louis XVI. 



24 LAFAYETTE 

This Prince was only two years older than La- 
fayette, and famous for his overbearing man- 
ners. As a result, when the Duke told his 
son-in-law of the interview he had arranged 
for him with the Count of Provence, Lafay- 
ette at once determined that nothing should 
make him accept service with so arrogant a 
fellow. 

Having decided that he wanted no favors 
from that particular Prince, Lafayette set 
about to make his decision clear. His oppor- 
tunity soon came. The King and Queen gave 
a masked ball at court, and the youthful Mar- 
quis was one of their guests. With his mask 
concealing his face he went up to the King's 
brother, the Count of Provence, and began to 
talk about liberty and equality and the rights 
of man, saying a great deal that he probably 
did not believe in his desire to make the Count 
angry. 

The plan succeeded beautifully. The 
Count tried to answer, but every time he 
opened his mouth Lafayette said more violent 
things and made more eloquent pleas for de- 
mocracy. At last the young Prince could stand 
the tirade no longer. " Sir," said he, lifting 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 25 

his mask and staring at his talkative compan- 
ion, " I shall remember this interview." 

" Sir," answered the young Marquis, also 
lifting his mask and bowing gracefully, " mem- 
ory is the wisdom of fools." 

It was a rash remark to make to a royal 
prince, but it had the effect that Lafayette de- 
sired. With an angry gesture the Count of 
Provence turned on his heel and made it clear 
to every one about him that the Marquis was in 
disgrace. In later days the Count showed that 
he had remembered Lafayette's words to him. 

News of what the Marquis had said quickly 
flew through the court and speedily reached 
the ears of the Duke d'Ayen. He was horri- 
fied; his son-in-law had not only insulted the 
Prince and so lost his chance of becoming a 
gentleman of his suite, but had also made him- 
self a laughing-stock. The Duke lectured the 
boy, and told him that he was throwing away 
all his chances for worldly advancement. But 
Lafayette answered that he cared nothing for 
princely favor and meant to follow the dictates 
of his o^vn nature. 

So the Duke, finally despairing of doing 
anything with so independent a fellow, had 



26 LAFAYETTE 

him ordered to join his regiment, and Lafay- 
ette left Paris to seek his fortmie elsewhere. 
Already, although he was only seventeen, the 
boy Marquis had shown that he was a true son 
of Auvergne, not a parasite of the King's 
court, as were most of his friends, but an inde- 
pendent, liberty -loving man. 



II 



'*WAKB UP! I'M GOING TO AMERICA TO 
FIGHT FOR FREEDOM !'' 

Although the young Marquis had delib- 
erately given up a career at court, there was 
every promise of his having a brilliant career 
in the army. Soon after his famous speech to 
the King's brother, in August, 1775, he was 
transferred from his regiment of Black Mus- 
keteers to a command in what was known as 
the " Regiment de Noailles," which had for its 
colonel a young man of very distinguished 
family, Monseigneur the Prince de Poix, who 
was a cousin of Lafayette's wife. 

The " Regiment de Noailles " was stationed 
at Metz, a garrison city some two hundred 
miles to the east of Paris. The commander of 
Metz was the Count de Broglie, a marshal and 
prince of France, who had commanded the 
French armies in the Seven Years' War, in 
one of the battles of which Lafayette's father 
had been killed. The Count de Broglie had 



28 LAFAYETTE 

known Lafayette's father and had greatly ad- 
mked him, and he did all he could to befriend 
the son, inviting him to all the entertainments 
he gave. 

It happened that early in August the Count 
de Broglie gave a dinner in honor of a young 
English prince, the Duke of Gloucester, and 
Lafayette, in the blue and silver uniform of 
his rank, was one of the guests at the table. 
The Duke of Gloucester was at the time in 
disgrace with his brother. King George the 
Third of England, because he had dared to 
marry a wife whom King George disliked. 
The Duke was really in exile from England, 
and in the company of the French officers he 
had no hesitation in speaking his mind about 
his royal brother and even in poking fun at 
some of his plans. And the Duke made a spe- 
cial point of criticizing King George for his 
policy toward the colonists in America. 

In that very year of the dinner-party at 
Metz, in the spring of 1775, a rebellion had 
broken out in the colonies, and there had actu- 
ally been a fight between American farmers 
and British regulars at the village of Lexing- 
ton in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 29 

Duke had received word of the obstinate re- 
sistance of the farmers — peasants, he called 
them — at Lexington and Concord, and of the 
retreat of Lord Percy and his troops to Bos- 
ton. The Duke told the dinner-party all 
about the discomfiture of his royal brother, 
laughing heartily at it, and also related how in 
that same seaport of Boston the townspeople 
had thrown a cargo of tea into the harbor 
rather than pay the royal tax on it. 

The Duke talked and Lafayette listened. 
The Duke spoke admiringly of the pluck of 
the American farmers, but pointed out that it 
was impossible for the colonists to win against 
regular troops unless experienced officers and 
leaders should help them. " They are poor, 
they are ill led," said the Duke, " they have no 
gentlemen-soldiers to show them how to fight, 
and the king my brother is determined to bring 
them into subjection by harsh and forcible 
methods if need be. But my letters say that 
the Americans seem set upon opposing force 
with force, and, as the country is large and the 
colonies scattered, it certainly looks as if the 
trouble would be long and serious. If but the 
Americans were well led, I should say the re- 



30 LAFAYETTE 



f 



bellion might really develop into a serious 
affair." 

Most of the officers knew little about Amer- 
ica; even Lafayette had only a vague idea 
about the colonies on the other side of the At- 
lantic Ocean. But the Duke's words stirred 
him deeply; he sat leaning far forward, his 
eyes shining with interest, his face expressing 
the closest attention. 

Finally, as the guests rose from the table, 
Lafayette burst forth impetuously. " But 
could one help these peasants over there be- 
yond the seas, monseigneur? " he asked the 
Duke. 

The English prince smiled at the young 
Frenchman's eagerness. " One could, my lord 
marquis, if he were there," he answered. 

" Then tell me, I pray you," continued La- 
fayette, " how one may do it, monseigneur. 
Tell me how to set about it. For see, I will 
join these Americans; I will help them fight 
for freedom!" 

Again the Duke smiled; the words seemed 
extravagant on the lips of a French officer. 
But a glance at Lafayette's face showed how 
much the boy was in earnest. The words were 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 31 

no idle boast; the speaker plainly meant them. 
So the Duke answered, " Why, I believe you 
would, my lord. It wouldn't take much to 
start you across the sea, — if your people would 
let you." 

Lafayette smiled to himself. He had al- 
ready done one thing that his family disap- 
proved of, and he did not intend to let them 
prevent his embarking on such an enterprise as 
this, one that appealed so intensely to his love 
of liberty. He asked the Duke of Gloucester 
all the questions he could think of, and the 
Duke gave him all the information he had 
about America. 

The dinner-party broke up, and most of the 
officers soon forgot all the conversation; but 
not so the young Marquis; that evening had 
been one of the great events of his life. As he 
said afterward, " From that hour I could think 
of nothing but this enterprise, and I resolved 
to go to Paris at once to make further in- 
quiries." 

His mind made up by what he had heard at 
Metz, Lafayette set off for Paris. But once 
there, it was hard to decide where he should 
turn for help. His father-in-law, he knew, 



32 LAFAYETTE 

would be even more scandalized by his new 
plan than he had been by the affront the young 
man had given the King's brother. His own 
wife was too young and inexperienced to give 
him wise counsel in such a matter. Finally he 
chose for his first real confidant his cousin and 
close friend, the Count de Segur. Lafayette 
went at once to his cousin's house, though it 
was only seven o'clock in the morning, was 
told that the Count was not yet out of bed, but, 
without waiting to be announced, rushed up- 
stairs and woke the young man. 

The Count saw his cousin standing beside 
him and shaking him by the arm. In great 
surprise he sat up. "Wake up! wake up!" 
cried Lafayette. "Wake up! I'm going to 
America to fight for freedom ! Nobody knows 
it yet ; but I love you too much not to tell you." 

The Count sprang out of bed and caught 
Lafayette's hand. " If that is so, I will go with 
you ! " he cried. " I will go to America too ! I 
will fight with you for freedom! How soon 
do you start?" 

It was easier said than done, however. The 
two young men had breakfast and eagerly dis- 
cussed this momentous matter. The upshot 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 33 

of their discussion was to decide to enlist a 
third friend in their cause, and so they set out 
to see Lafayette's brother-in-law, the Viscount 
Louis Marie de Noailles, who was a year older 
than the Marquis. 

The young Viscount, like the Count de 
Segur, heard Lafayette's news with delight, 
for he also belonged to that small section of the 
French nobility that was very much interested 
in what was called " the rights of man." So 
here were three young fellows, — hardly more 
than boys, — for none of the three was over 
twenty years old, all of high rank and large 
fortune, eager to do what they could to help 
the fighting farmers of the American colonies. 

At the very start, however, they ran into 
difficulties. France and England, though not 
on very friendly terms at that particular time, 
were yet keeping the peace between them, and 
the French prime minister was afraid that if 
the English government should learn that a 
number of young French aristocrats were in- 
tending to aid the rebellious American colo- 
nists it might cause ill-feeling between France 
and England. The prime minister, therefore, 
frowned on all such schemes as that of Lafay- 



81. LAFAYETTE 



I 



ette, and so the three young liberty-loving con- 
spirators had to set about their business with 
the greatest secrecy. 

Lafayette's next step was to hunt out a man 
who had been sent over to France from the 
American colonies as a secret agent, a repre- 
sentative of what was known as the American 
Committee of Secret Correspondence, of 
which Benjamin Franklin was a member. 
This man was Silas Deane of the colony of 
Connecticut. Deane was secretly sending 
arms and supplies from France to America, 
but he was so closely watched by the agents of 
the English Ambassador, Lord Stormont, that 
it was very difficult to see him without rousing 
suspicions. 

While the Marquis was studying the prob- 
lem of how to get in touch with Deane he con- 
fided his secret to the Count de Broglie, his 
superior officer at Metz and his very good 
friend. The Count was at once opposed to 
any such rash venture. " You want to throw 
your life aAvay in that land of savages!" ex- 
claimed De Broglie. " Why, my dear Lafay- 
ette, it is the craziest scheme I ever heard of! 
And to what purpose? " 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 35 

" For the noblest of purposes, sir," answered 
the Marquis. " To help a devoted people win 
their liberty! What ambition could be 
nobler? " 

" It is a dream, my friend, a dream that can 
never be fulfilled," said the old soldier. " I 
will not help you to throw your life away. I 
saw your uncle die in the wars of Italy, I 
witnessed your brave father's death at the bat- 
tle of Hastenbeck, and I cannot be a party 
to the ruin of the last of your name, the only 
one left of the stock of the Laf ayettes ! " 

But even the old Marshal could not with- 
stand the ardor and enthusiasm of the youth. 
So vehemently did Lafayette set forth his 
wishes that finally the Count promised that he 
would not actively oppose his plans, and pres- 
ently agreed to introduce the Marquis to a 
Bavarian soldier named De Kalb, who might 
be able to help him. 

" I will introduce you to De Kalb," said the 
Count. " He is in Paris now, and perhaps 
through him you may be able to communi- 
cate with this American agent, Monsieur 
Deane." 

De Kalb was a soldier of fortune who had 



36 LAFAYETTE 

been to America long before the Revolution 
and knew a great deal about the colonies. At 
present he was in France, giving what infor- 
mation he could to the government there. And 
the upshot of Lafayette's talk with the Count 
de Broglie was that the latter not only gave 
the Marquis a letter to De Kalb but also actu- 
ally asked De Kalb to go to America and see 
if he could arrange things so that he, the Count 
de Broglie, might be invited by the American 
Congress to cross the ocean and become com- 
mander-in-chief of the American army! Per- 
haps it was natural that the veteran Marshal 
of France should think that he would make a 
better commander-in-chief than the untried 
George Washington. 

The Baron de Kalb arranged that the Count 
de Broglie should see Silas Deane of Con- 
necticut. Silas Deane was impressed with the 
importance of securing such a powerful friend 
and leader for his hard-pressed people, and he 
at once agreed to see what he could do for 
De Broglie, and promised Baron de Kalb the 
rank of major-general in the American army 
and signed an agreement with him by which 
fifteen French officers should go to America 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 37 

on a ship that was fitting out with arms and 
supplies. 

This fell in beautifully with Lafayette's 
Avishes. De Broglie introduced the Marquis 
to De Kalb, and De Kalb presented him to 
Silas Deane. This was in December, 1776, 
and Lafayette, only nineteen, slight of figure, 
looked very boyish for such an enterprise. But 
he plainly showed that his whole heart was in 
his plan, and, as he said himself, " made so 
much out of the small excitement that my 
going away was likely to cause," that the 
American agent was carried away by his 
enthusiasm, and in his own rather reckless 
fashion, wrote out a paper by which the young 
Marquis was to enter the service of the Ameri- 
can colonies as a major-general. 

Deane's enthusiasm over Lafayette's offer of 
his services may be seen from what he wrote 
in the agreement. The paper he sent to Con- 
gress in regard to this volunteer ran as fol- 
lows: " His high birth, his alliances, the great 
dignities which his family holds at this court, 
his considerable estates in this realm, his per- 
sonal merit, his reputation, his disinterested- 
ness, and, above all, his zeal for the liberty of 



38 LAFAYETTE 

our provinces, are such as have only been able 
to engage me to promise him the rank of 
major-general in the name of the United 
States. In witness of which I have signed 
the present this seventh of December, 1776. 
Silas Deane, Agent for the United States of 
America." 

By this time the colonies had issued their 
Declaration of Independence, and called them- 
selves, as Silas Deane described them, the 
United States of America. 

Imagine Lafayette's joy at this result of his 
meeting with Silas Deane ! It seemed as if his 
enthusiasm had already won him his goal. But 
there were other people to be considered, and 
his family were not as much delighted with his 
plans as the man from Connecticut had been. 

As a matter of fact his father-in-law, the 
powerful Duke d'Ayen, was furious, and so 
were most of the others of his family. His 
cousin, the Count de Segur, described the feel- 
ings of Lafayette's relations. "It is easy to 
conceive their astonishment," he wrote, " when 
they learned suddenly that this young sage of 
nineteen, so cool and so indifferent, had been so 
far carried away by the love of glory and of 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 39 

danger as to intend to cross the ocean and fight 
in the cause of American freedom." There 
was more of a storm at home than when the 
self-willed young Marquis had of his own ac- 
cord disgraced himself at court. 

But his wife Adrienne, girl though she was, 
understood him far better than the rest of the 
family, and even sympathized w^ith his great 
desire. " God wills that you should go," she 
said to her husband. " I have prayed for 
guidance and strength. Whatever others 
think, you shall not be blamed." 

Others, however, did have to be reckoned 
with. Lafayette's two friends, the Count de 
Segur and the Viscount de Noailles, both of 
whom had been so eager to go with him, had 
found that their fathers would not supply them 
with the money they needed and that the King 
would not consent to their going to America. 
Reluctantly they had to give up their plans. 
But Lafayette was rich, he had no need to ask 
for funds from any one ; there was no difficulty 
for him on that score. 

He was, hoA^ ever, an officer of France, and 
it was on that ground that his father-in-law 
tried to put an end to his scheme. He went 



40 LAFAYETTE 

to the King with his complaint about the wilful 
Marquis. At the same time the English 
Ambassador, who had got wind of the matter, 
also complained to King Louis. And Louis 
XVL, who had never concerned himself much 
about liberty and took little interest in the 
rebel farmers across the Atlantic, said that 
while he admired the enthusiasm of the 
Marquis de Lafayette, he could not think of 
permitting officers of his army to serve with 
the men of America who were in rebellion 
against his good friend the King of England, 
Therefore he issued an order forbidding any 
soldier in his service taking part in the Revolu- 
tion in America. 

The Duke d'Ayen was delighted. He went 
to Lafayette, and trying to put the matter on 
a friendly footing, said, " You had better re- 
turn to your regiment at Metz, my dear son." 

Lafayette drew himself up, his face as de- 
termined as ever. " No Lafayette was ever 
known to turn back," he answered. " I shall 
do as I have determined." 

One of Lafayette's ancestors had adopted 
as his motto the words '' Cur nonf meaning 
" Why not? " and the Marquis now put these 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 41 

on his own coat of arms, the idea being, as he 
himself said, that they should serve him " both 
as an encouragement and a response." 

By this time the young republic in America 
had sent Benjamin Franklin to help Silas 
Deane in Paris. Franklin heard of Lafay- 
ette's desires and knew how much help his 
influence might bring the new republic. So 
he set about to see what he could do to further 
Lafayette's plans. 

At that moment things looked gloomy in- 
deed for the Americans. Their army had been 
badly defeated at the battle of Long Island, 
and their friends in Europe were depressed. 
That, however, seemed to Lafayette all the 
more reason for taking them aid as quickly as 
he could, and when he heard that Benjamin 
Franklin was interested in him he made an 
opportunity to see the latter. 

Franklin was perfectly fair with Lafayette. 
He gave the young Frenchman the exact news 
he had received from America, information 
that Washington's army of three thousand 
ragged and suffering men were retreating 
across New Jersey before the victorious and 
well-equipped troops of General Howe. He 



42 LAFAYETTE 

pointed out that the credit of the new republic 
was certain to sink lower and lower unless 
Washington should be able to win a victory and 
that at present it looked as if any such event 
was far away. And in view of all this Frank- 
lin, and Silas Deane also, was frank enough to 
tell Lafayette that his plan of aiding the 
United States at that particular time was al- 
most foolhardy. 

The Frenchman thanked them for their 
candor. " Until this moment, gentlemen," 
said he, " I have only been able to show you my 
zeal in your struggle; now the time has come 
when that zeal may be put to actual use. I am 
going to buy a ship and carry your officers 
and supplies to America in it. We must show 
our confidence in the cause, and it is in just 
such a time of danger as this that I want to 
share whatever fortune may have in store for 
you." 

Franklin was immensely touched by the gen- 
erosity of the young Marquis and told him so. 
But, practical man as he was, although he 
gladly accepted Lafayette's offer, he pointed 
out that as the American agents were closely 
watched in Paris it would be better for Lafav- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 43 

ette to work through third parties and in some 
other place than the French capital, if possible. 

Lafayette took these suggestions. At once 
he found that it was extremely difficult to se- 
cure a ship without discovery by the English 
Ambassador. Here the Count de Broglie 
again gave him aid. He introduced the Mar- 
quis to Captain Dubois, the brother of his sec- 
retary, an officer in one of the King's West 
Indian regiments, who happened to be at home 
on furlough at the time, and Lafayette en- 
gaged him as his agent. He sent him secretly 
to Bordeaux, the French seaport that was sup- 
posed to be safest from suspicion, and gave him 
the money to buy and supply a ship, the plan 
being that Captain Dubois should appear to 
be fitting out the vessel for the needs of his own 
regiment in the West Indies. 

The needed repairs to the ship would take 
some time, and meanwhile, in order to escape 
all possible suspicion of his plans, Lafayette 
arranged with his cousin, the Prince de Poix, 
to make a journey to England. The Marquis 
de Noailles, Lafayette's uncle, was the French 
Ambassador to England, and he welcomed the 
two young noblemen with delight. Every one 



44 LAFAYETTE 

supposed that Lafayette had at last given up 
his wild schemes, and all the great houses of 
London were thrown open to him. He wrote 
of the amusement he felt at being presented 
to King George HI., and of how much he en- 
joyed a ball at the house of Lord George 
Germain, the secretary for the colonies. At 
the opera he met Sir Henry Clinton, with 
whom he had a pleasant, friendly chat. The 
next time Sir Henry and he were to meet was 
to be on the field of arms at the Battle of Mon- 
mouth. 

But he never took advantage of his hosts. 
He kept away from the English barracks and 
shipyards, though he was invited to inspect 
them. He was careful to a degree to avoid 
any act that might later be considered as hav- 
ing been in the nature of a breach of confidence. 
And after three weeks in the gay world of 
London he felt that he could brook no longer 
delay and told his uncle the Ambassador that 
he had taken a fancy to cross the Channel for a 
short visit at home. 

His uncle opposed this idea, saying that so 
abrupt a departure would be discourteous to 
the English court, but Lafayette insisted. So 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 45 

the Marquis de Noailles finally offered to give 
out the report that his nephew was sick until 
the latter should return to London. Lafay- 
ette agreed. " I would not have proposed 
this stratagem," he said later, " but I did not 
object to it." 

The voyage on the Channel was rough and 
Lafayette was seasick. As soon as he reached 
France he went to Paris and stayed in hiding 
at the house of Baron de Kalb. He had an- 
other interview with the American agents and 
sent out his directions to the men who were to 
sail with him. Then he slipped away to 
Bordeaux, where he found the sloop Victory, 
bought by Captain Dubois with Lafayette's 
money, and now ready for the voyage across 
the Atlantic. 

Lafayette, however, could not sail away 
from France under his own name, and as a 
permit was required of every one leaving the 
country, a special one had to be made out for 
him. This is still kept at Bordeaux, and de- 
scribes the passenger on the sloop as " Gilbert 
du Mottie, Chevalier de Chavaillac, aged 
about twenty, rather tall, light-haired, embark- 
ing on the Victory, Captain Lebourcier com- 



46 LAFAYETTE 

manding, for a voyage to the Cape on private 
business." His name was not very much 
changed, for he was really Gilbert du Motier 
and also the Chevalier de Chavaniac, but prob- 
ably a careless clerk, who had no concern in 
this particular young man's affairs, made the 
mistakes in spelling, and so aided Lafayette's 
disguise. 

But all was not yet smooth sailing. Lord 
Stormont, the English Ambassador, heard of 
Lafayette's departure from Paris and also of 
his plans to leave France, and at once pro- 
tested to the King. Lafayette's father-in-law 
likewise i^rotested, and no sooner had the 
young nobleman arrived in Bordeaux than 
royal officers were on his track. The French 
government did not want him to sail, no matter 
how much it might secretly sympathize with 
the young republic across the ocean. 

Having come so far, however, the intrepid 
Marquis did not intend to be stopped. He 
meant to sail on his ship, he meant to carry out 
the brave words he had spoken to his cousin. 
" I'm going to America to fight for freedom! " 
he had said, and he was determined to accom- 
plish that end. 



Ill 

HOW LAFAYETTE RAN AWAY TO SEA 

Lafayette did actually run away to sea, 
tvith the officers of King Louis XVL hot-foot 
after him. When he learned that his plans 
were known and that he would surely be 
stopped if he delayed he ordered the captain of 
the Victor?/ to set sail from Bordeaux without 
waiting for the necessary sailing-papers. His 
intention was to run into the Spanish port of 
Las Pasajes, just across the French frontier 
on the Bay of Biscay, and there complete his 
arrangements for crossing the Atlantic, for the 
sloop still needed some repairs before starting 
on such a voyage. 

At Las Pasajes, however, he found more 
obstacles and difficulties. Instead of the sail- 
ing-papers he expected letters and orders and 
French officers were waiting for him. The 
letters were from his family, protesting against 
his rash act, the orders were from Louis XVI.'s 



48 LAFAYETTE 

ministers, and charged him with deserting the 
army, breaking his oath of allegiance to the 
King, and involving France in difficulties with 
England. And the officers were from the 
court, with documents bearing the Kmg's own 
seal, and commanding Lieutenant the Marquis 
de Lafayette of the regiment of De Noailles 
to go at once to the French port of Marseilles 
and there await further orders. 

The news that affected the runaway noble- 
man most was contained in the letters from 
home. He had had to leave Paris without 
telling his intentions to his wife, much as he 
hated to do this. He knew that she really ap- 
proved of his plans and would do nothing to 
thwart them, but the letters said that she was 
ill and in great distress of mind. He would 
have braved the King's order of arrest and all 
the other threats, but he could not stand the 
idea of his wife being in distress on his account. 
So, with the greatest reluctance he said good- 
bye to his plans, left his ship in the Spanish 
port, and crossed the border back to France. 

It looked as if this was to be the end of 
Lafayette's gallant adventure. The Baron de 
Kalb, very much disappointed, wrote to his 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 49 

wife, " This is the end of his expedition to 
America to join the army of the insurgents." 

It might have been the end with another 
man, but not with Lafayette. He rode back 
to Bordeaux, and there found that much of 
the outcry raised against him was due to the 
wiles of his obstinate father-in-law, the Duke 
d'Ayen. It was true that the English Am- 
bassador had protested to King Louis' min- 
isters, but there was no real danger of La- 
fayette's sailing disturbing the relations be- 
tween England and France. New letters told 
Lafayette that his wife was well and happy, 
though she missed him. The threats and the 
orders were due, not to the anger of his own 
government, but to the determination of the 
Duke that his son-in-law should not risk his 
life and fortune in such a rash enterprise. 

When he learned all this the Marquis deter- 
mined to match the obstinacy of the Duke with 
an even greater obstinacy of his own. His 
first thought was to join his ship the Victory 
at once, but he had no permit to cross into 
Spain, and if he should be caught disobeying 
the King's orders a second time he might get 
into more serious trouble. His father-in-law 



50 LAFAYETTE 

was waiting to see him at Marseilles, and so 
he now arranged to go to that city. 

In Bordeaux Lafayette met a young French 
officer, named Du Mauroy, who had also re- 
ceived from Silas Deane a commission in the 
American army, and who Avas very anxious 
to reach the United States. The two made 
their plans together, and the upshot of it was 
that they presently set out together in a post- 
chaise for Marseilles. 

They did not keep on the road to Marseilles 
long, however. No sooner were they well out 
of Bordeaux than they changed their course 
and drove in the direction of the Spanish 
border. In a quiet place on the road Lafay- 
ette slipped out of the chaise and hid in the 
woods. There he disguised himself as a post- 
boy or courier, and then rode on ahead, on 
horseback, as if he were the servant of the 
gentleman in the carriage. 

His companion, Du Mauroy, had a permit 
to leave France, and the plan was that he 
should try to get the Marquis across the 
Spanish frontier as his body-servant. The 
chaise went galloping along as fast as the 
horses could pull it, because the young men 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 51 

had good reason to fear that French officers 
would speedily be on their track, if they were 
not already pursuing them. They came to a 
little village, St. Jean de Luz, where Lafay- 
ette had stopped on his journey from Las 
Pasajes to Bordeaux a short time before, and 
there, as the Marquis, disguised as the post- 
boy, rode into the stable-yard of the inn the 
daughter of the innkeeper recognized him as 
the same young man she had waited on earlier. 

The girl gave a cry of surprise. " Oh, 
monsieur! " she exclaimed. 

Lafayette put his finger to his lips in warn- 
ing. " Yes, my girl," he said quickly. *' Mon- 
sieur my patron wants fresh horses at once. 
He is coming just behind me, and is riding 
post-haste to Spain." 

The girl understood. Perhaps she was 
used to odd things happening in a village so 
close to the border of France and Spain, per- 
haps she liked the young man and wanted to 
help him in his adventure. She called a stable- 
boy and had him get the fresh horses that were 
needed, and when the disguised Marquis and 
his friend were safely across the frontier and 
some French officers came galloping up to the 



52 LAFAYETTE 

inn in pursuit of them she told the latter that 
the post-chaise had driven off by the opposite 
road to the one it had really taken. 

At last, on April seventeenth, Lafayette 
reached the Spanish seaport of Las Pasajes 
again and went on board of his sloop the 
Victory, After six months of plotting and 
planning and all sorts of discouragements he 
was actually free to sail for America, and on 
the twentieth of April, 1777, he gave the order 
to Captain Leboucier to hoist anchor and put 
out to sea. On the deck of the Victory with 
him stood De Kalb and about twenty young 
Frenchmen, all, like their commander, eager 
to fight for the cause of liberty. The shores of 
Spain dropped astern, and Lafayette and his 
friends turned their eyes westward in the direc- 
tion of the New World. 

When news of Lafayette's sailing reached 
Paris it caused the greatest interest. Though 
the King and the older members of his court 
might frown and shake their heads the younger 
people were frankly delighted. Coffee-houses 
echoed with praise of the daring Lieutenant, 
and whenever his name was mentioned in pub- 
lic it met with the loudest applause. In the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 58 

world of society opinions differed; most of the 
luxury-loving nobility thought the adventure 
of the Marquis a wild-goose chase. The 
Chevalier de Marais wrote to his mother, " All 
Paris is discussing the adventure of a young- 
courtier, the son-in-law of Noailles, who has a 
pretty wife, two children, fifty thousand 
crowns a year, — in fact, everything which can 
make life here agreeable and dear, but who 
deserted all that a week ago to join the in- 
surgents. His name is M. de Lafayette." 

And the Chevalier's mother answered from 
her chateau in the country, *' What new kind 
of folly is this, my dear child? What! the 
madness of knight-errantry still exists! It 
has disciples! Go to help the insurgents! I 
am delighted that you reassure me about your- 
self, for I should tremble for you; but since 
you see that M. de Lafayette is a madman, I 
am tranquil." 

A celebrated Frenchwoman, Madame du 
Deffand, wrote to the Englishman Horace 
Walpole, " Of course it is a piece of folly, but 
it does him no discredit. He receives more 
praise than blame." And that was the opinion 
of a large part of France. If a young man 



54 LAFAYETTE 

chose to do such a wild thing as to become a 
knight-errant he might be criticized for his 
lack of wisdom, but on the whole he was not to 
be condemned. 

Meantime, as the Victory was spreading her 
sails on the broad Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin 
was writing to the American Congress. This 
was what he said: " The Marquis de Lafayette, 
a young nobleman of great family connections 
here and great wealth, is gone to America in 
a ship of his own, accompanied by some officers 
of distinction, in order to serve in our armies. 
He is exceedingly beloved, and everybody's 
good wishes attend him. We cannot but hope 
he may meet with such a reception as will make 
the country and his expedition agreeable to 
him. Those who censure it as imprudent in 
him, do, nevertheless, applaud his spirit; and 
we are satisfied that the civilities and respect 
that may be shown him will be serviceable to 
our affairs here, as pleasing not only to his 
powerful relations and the court, but to the 
whole French nation. He has left a beautiful 
young wife; and for her sake, particularly, we 
hope that his bravery and ardent desire to dis- 
tinguish himself will be a little restrained by 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 55 

the General's prudence, so as not to permit his 
heing hazarded much, except on some im- 
portant occasion." 

The Victory was not a very seaworthy ship. 
Lafayette had been swindled by the men who 
had sold the sloop to his agent; she was a very 
slow craft, and was poorly furnished and 
scantily armed. Her two small cannon and 
small stock of muskets would have been a poor 
defense in case she had been attacked by any 
of the pirates who swarmed on the high seas in 
those days or by the English cruisers who were 
looking for ships laden with supplies for 
America. 

In addition to the defects of his ship Lafay- 
ette soon found he had other obstacles to cope 
with. He discovered that the captain of the 
Victory considered himself a much more im- 
portant person than the owner and meant to 
follow his own course. 

The papers with which the ship had sailed 
from Spain declared that her destination was 
the West Indies. But ships often sailed for 
other ports than those they were supposed to, 
and Lafaj^ette wanted to reach the United 
States as quickly as he could. He went to the 



56 LAFAYETTE 

captain and said, " You will please make your 
course as direct as possible for Charlestown in 
the Carolinas." 

"The Carolinas, sir!" exclaimed the cap- 
tain. " Why, I cannot do that. The ship's 
papers are made out for the West Indies and 
will only protect us if we sail for a port there. 
I intend to sail for the West Indies, and you 
will have to get transportation across to the 
colonies from there." 

Lafayette was amazed. " This ship is mine," 
he declared, " and I direct you to sail to 
Charlestown." 

But the captain was obstinate. " I am the 
master of this ship, sir," said he, " and respon- 
sible for its safety. If we should be caught 
by an English cruiser and she finds that we are 
headed for North America with arms and sup- 
plies, we shall be made prisoners, and lose our 
ship, our cargo, and perhaps our lives. I in- 
tend to follow my sailing-papers and steer for 
the West Indies." 

No one could be more determined than 
Lafayette, however. " You may be master of 
the Victory, Captain Leboucier," said he, " but 
I am her owner and my decision is final. You 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 57 

will sail at once and by the directest course for 
the port of Charlestown in the Carolinas or I 
shall deprive you instantly of your command 
and place the mate in charge of the ship. I 
have enough men here to meet any resistance 
on your part. So make your decision immedi- 
ately." 

The captain in his turn was surprised. The 
young owner was very positive and evidently 
not to be cajoled or threatened. So Leboucier 
complained and blustered and argued a little, 
and finally admitted that it was not so much 
the ship's papers as her cargo that he was 
troubled about. He owned that he had con- 
siderable interest in that cargo, for he had 
smuggled eight or nine thousand dollars' worth 
of goods on board the Victory and wanted to 
sell them in the West Indies and so make an 
extra profit on the side for himself. The real 
reason why he didn't want to be caught by an 
English cruiser was the danger of losing his 
smuggled merchandise. 

" Then why didn't you say so at first? " 
Lafayette demanded. " I would have been 
willing to help you out, of course. Sail for 
the port of Charlestown in the Carolinas ; and 



58 LAFAYETTE 

if we are captured, searched, robbed, or des- 
troyed by any English cruisers or privateers 
I will see that you don't lose a sou. I will 
promise to make any loss good." 

That satisfied Captain Leboucier. As long 
as his goods were safe he had no hesitation on 
the score of danger to the ship, and so he 
immediately laid his course for the coast of the 
Carolinas. Lafayette, however, realizing that 
the Victory might be overtaken by enemy war- 
ships, arranged with one of his men. Captain 
de Bedaulx, that in case of attack and capture 
the latter should blow up the ship rather than 
surrender. With this matter arranged the 
Marquis went to his cabin and stayed there for 
two weeks, as seasick as one could be. 

The voyage across the Atlantic in those days 
was a long and tedious affair. It took seven 
weeks, and after Lafayette had recovered from 
his seasickness he had plenty of time to think 
of the hazards of his new venture and of the 
family he had left at home. He was devoted 
to his family, and as the Victory kept on her 
westward course he wrote long letters to his 
wife, planning to send them back to France by 
different ships, so that if one was captured an- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 59 

other might carry his message to Adrieime 
safely to her. In one letter he wrote, " Oh, if 
you knew what I have suffered, what weary 
days I have passed thus flying from every- 
thing that I love best in the world!'' And 
then, in order to make his wife less fearful of 
possible dangers that might beset him, he said, 
" The post of major-general has always been 
a warrant of long life. It is so different from 
the service I should have had in France, as 
colonel, for instance. With my present rank I 
shall only have to attend councils of war. . . . 
As soon as I land I shall be in perfect 
safety." 

But this boy, nineteen years old, though he 
called himself a major-general, was not to be 
content with attending councils of war and 
keeping out of danger, as later events were to 
show. He was far too eager and impetuous 
for that, too truly a son of the wild Auvergne 
Mountains. 

And he showed that he knew that himself, 
for later in the same letter to Adrienne he com- 
pared his present journey with what his father- 
in-law would have tried to make him do had 
Lafayette met the Duke d'Ayen at Marseilles. 



60 LAFAYETTE 

" Consider the difference between my occupa- 
tion and my present life," he wrote, " and 
what they would have been if I had gone upon 
that useless journey. As the defender of that 
liberty which I adore; free, myself, more than 
any one ; coming, as a friend, to offer my serv- 
ices to this most interesting republic, I bring 
with me nothing but my own free heart and my 
own good-will, — no ambition to fulfil and no 
selfish interest to serve. If I am striving for 
my own glory, I am at the same time laboring 
for the welfare of the American republic. I 
trust that, for my sake, you will become a good 
American. It is a sentiment made for virtuous 
hearts. The happiness of America is inti- 
mately connected with the happiness of all 
mankind; she is destined to become the safe 
and worthy asylum of virtue, integrity, toler- 
ance, equality, and peaceful liberty." 

This, from a boy not yet twenty years old, 
showed the prophetic instinct that burned like 
a clear flame in the soul of Lafayette. 

He knew very little of the English tongue, 
but that was the language of the people he was 
going to help, and so on shipboard he set him- 
self to study it. " I am making progress with 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 61 

that language,'* he wrote to his wife. " It 
will soon become most necessary to me." 

The North Atlantic was stormy, the Victory 
met with head winds, and through April and 
May she floundered on, her passengers eagerly 
scanning the horizon for a sight of land. On 
the seventh of June the Marquis wrote in a 
letter to Adrienne, " I am still out on this 
dreary plain, which is beyond comparison the 
most dismal place that one can be in. . . . 
We have had small alarms from time to time, 
but with a little care, and reasonably good 
fortune, I hope to get through without serious 
accident, and I shall be all the more pleased, 
because I am learning every day to be ex- 
tremely prudent." 

Then, on a June day, the Victory suddenly 
became all excitement. The lookout reported 
to Captain Leboucier that a strange vessel was 
bearing down in their direction. 

Leboucier instantly crowded on sail and 
tried to run from the strange ship. But the 
Victory was not built for fast sailing, and it 
was soon clear that the stranger would quickly 
overhaul her. 

"It's an English man-of-war!" was the 



62 LAFAYETTE 

message that ran from lip to lip. In that case 
the only choice would be between resistance and 
surrender. Leboucier looked doubtful as to 
the wisest course to pursue, but Lafayette and 
his companions made ready to fight. The two 
old cannon were loaded, the muskets dis- 
tributed, and the crew ordered to their stations. 

The stranger drew nearer and nearer, sail- 
ing fast, and the Victory floundered along in 
desperation. Lafayette and De Bedaulx stood 
at the bow of the sloop, their eyes fixed on the 
rapidly-gaining pursuer. Then, just as escape 
appeared utterly out of the question, the on- 
coming ship went about, and as she turned she 
broke out from her peak a flag of red, white 
and blue, the stars and stripes of the new 
United States of America. A wild cheer 
greeted that flag, and the colors of France were 
run up to the peak of the Victory in joyful 
greeting to the flag of Lafayette's ally. 

The Victory headed about and tried to keep 
up with the fleet American privateer, but in a 
very short time two other sails appeared on 
the horizon. The American ship ran up a 
danger signal, declaring these new vessels to 
be English cruisers, scouting along the coast 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 63 

on the watch for privateers and blockade 
runners. Having given that information the 
American ship signaled " good-bye," and drew 
away from the enemy on a favoring tack. 

The Victory could not draw away so easily, 
however, and it was clear that her two cannon 
would be little use against two well-armed 
English cruisers. In this new predicament 
luck came to the aid of the little sloop. The 
wind shifted and blew strongly from the north. 
This would send the Victory nearer to the port 
of Charlestown, the outlines of which now be- 
gan to appear on the horizon, and would also 
be a head wind for the pursuing cruisers. 
Captain Leboucier decided to take advantage 
of the shift in the wind, and instead of heading 
for Charlestown run into Georgetown Bay, 
which opened into the coast of the Carolinas 
almost straight in front of him. 

Fortune again favored him, for, although he 
knew very little of that coast, and nothing of 
these particular shoals and channels, he found 
the opening of the South Inlet of Georgetown 
Bay and sailed his ship into that sheltered road- 
stead. The English vessels, working against 
the north wind, soon were lost to sight. On 



64 LAFAYETTE 

the afternoon of June 13, 1777, Lafayette's 
little sloop ran past the inlet and up to North 
Island, one of the low sand-pits that are a 
fringe along the indented shore of South 
Carolina. 

The long sea-voyage was over, and Lafay- 
ette looked at last at the coast of the country 
he had come to help. 



IV 

THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN REACHES 
AMERICA 

The Victory had anchored off North Island, 
a stretch of sand on the South Carolina coast, 
but neither the captain nor the owner nor the 
crew of the sloop knew much more about their 
location than that it was somewhere in North 
America. Charlestown they believed was the 
nearest port of any size, but it might be diffi- 
cult to navigate through these shoal waters 
without a pilot who knew the channels. So 
Lafayette suggested to Baron de Kalb that 
they should land in one of the sloop's boats 
and see if they could get information or 
assistance. 

Early in the afternoon Lafayette, De Kalb, 
and a few of the other officers were rowed 
ashore in the Victory's yawl. But the shore 
was merely a sand-flat, with no sign of human 
habitation. They put out again and rowed 



66 LAFAYETTE 

farther up the bay, keeping a sharp lookout for 
any house or farm. They found plenty of 
little creeks and islands, but the shores were 
simply waste stretches of sand and scrub - 
bushes and woods. The mainland appeared as 
deserted as though it had been a desert island 
far out in the sea. 

All afternoon they rowed about, poking the 
yawl's nose first into one creek and then into 
another, and nightfall found them still explor- 
ing the North Inlet. Then, when they had 
about decided that it was too dark to row 
further and that they had better return to the 
sloop, they suddenly saw a lighted torch on 
the shore. Heading for this they found some 
negroes dragging for oysters. Baron de Kalb, 
who knew more English than the others, called 
out and asked if there was good anchorage for 
a ship thereabouts and whether he could find a 
pilot to take them to Charlestown. 

The negroes, very much surprised at the sud- 
den appearance of the yawl, thought the men 
on board might be Englishmen or Hessians, 
and instantly grew suspicious. One of them 
answered, " We belong to Major Huger, all of 
us belongs to him. He's our master." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 67 

" Is he an officer in the American army? " 
De Kalb called back. 

The negro said that he was, and added that 
there was a pilot on the upper end of North 
Island, and then volunteered to show the men 
in the yawl where the pilot lived and also to 
take them to the house of the Major. 

Lafayette thought it would be best to find 
Major Huger at once; but the tide was falling 
fast, and when the rowers, unused to these 
shoals, tried to follow the negroes in the oyster- 
boat, they discovered that they were in danger 
of beaching their yawl. The only alternative 
was for some of them to go in the oyster-boat, 
and so Lafayette and De Kalb and one other 
joined the negroes, while the crew of the yawl 
rowed back to the Victory, 

Over more shallows, up more inlets the 
negroes steered their craft, and about midnight 
they pointed out a light shining from a house 
on the shore. " That's Major Huger's," said 
the guide, and he ran his boat up to a landing- 
stage. The three officers stepped out, putting 
their feet on American soil for the first time 
on this almost deserted coast and under the 
guidance of stray negro oystermen. 



68 LAFAYETTE 

But this desolate shore had already been the 
landing-place of English privateersmen, and 
the people who lived in the neighborhood were 
always in fear of attack. As Lafayette and 
his two friends went up toward the house the 
loud barking of dogs suddenly broke the 
silence. And as they came up to the dwelling 
a window was thrown open and a man called 
out, " Who goes there? Stop where you are 
or ni fire!" 

" We are friends, sir; friends only," De Kalb 
hurriedly answered. " We are French offi- 
cers who have just landed from our ship, which 
has come into your waters. We have come to 
fight for America and we are looking for a 
pilot to steer our ship to a safe anchorage and 
are also hunting shelter for ourselves." 

No sooner had the master of the house heard 
this than he turned and gave some orders. 
Lights shone out from the windows, and al- 
most immediately the front door was unbarred 
and thrown open. The owner stood in the 
doorway, his hands stretched out in greeting, 
and back of him were a number of negro serv- 
ants with candles. 

" Indeed, sirs, I am very proud to welcome 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 69 

you! " he said; and then stopped an instant to 
call to the dogs to stop their barking. " I am 
Major Huger of the American army, Major 
Benjamin Huger, and this is my house on the 
shore where we camp out in the summer. 
Please come in, gentlemen. My house and 
everything in it is at the service of the brave 
and generous Frenchmen who come to fight 
for our liberties." 

There was no doubt of the warmth of the 
strangers' welcome. The Major caught De 
Kalb's hand and shook it strenuously, while 
his small son, who had slipped into his clothes 
and hurried down-stairs to see what all the 
noise was about, seized Lafayette by the arm 
and tried to pull him into the lighted hall. 

" You are most kind. Major Huger," said 
De Kalb. " Let me introduce my friends. 
This gentleman is the leader of our expedition, 
the Seigneur Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de 
Lafayette; this is Monsieur Price of Sauve- 
terre, and I am Johann Kalb." 

" He is the Baron de Kalb, monsieur," put 
in Lafayette. " A brigadier in the army of 
the King of France and aid to the INIarshal the 
Count de Broglie." 



70 LAFAYETTE 

Major Huger had heard of the Marquis de 
Lafayette, for ah*eady news of the French- 
man's determination to fight for the young 
republic had crossed the Atlantic. He caught 
Lafayette by both hands. " The Marquis de 
Lafayette!" he cried. "My house is indeed 
honored by your presence ! We have all heard 
of you. You have only to command me, sir, 
and I will do your bidding. I will look after 
your ship and your pilot. But to-night you 
must stay here as my guests, and to-morrow I 
will see to everything. This is my son, Francis 
Kinloch Huger. Now please come into my 
dining-room, gentlemen, and let me offer you 
some refreshment." 

Small Francis, still holding Lafayette's 
hand, drew the Marquis in at the door. The 
three guests, delighted at their welcome, went 
to the dining-room, and there toasts were 
drunk to the success of the cause of liberty. 
America was not so inhospitable to the weary 
travelers after all, and with the glow of the 
Major's welcome warming them, Lafayette 
and his two friends went to their rooms and 
slept in real beds for the first time in many 
weeks. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 71 

Lafayette naturally was delighted at safely 
reaching his haven, and, as he put it in his own 
words, " retired to rest rejoiced that he had at 
last attained the haven of his wishes and was 
safely landed in America beyond the reach of 
his pursuers." Weary from his long voyage 
on the Victory, he slept soundlj^ and woke 
full of enthusiasm for this new country, which 
was to be like a foster-mother to him. " The 
next morning," he wrote, " was beautiful. 
The novelty of everything around me, the 
room, the bed with its mosquito curtains, the 
black servants who came to ask my wishes, the 
beauty and strange appearance of the coun- 
try as I could see it from my window clothed 
in luxuriant verdure, — all conspired to pro- 
duce upon me an effect like magic and to im- 
press me with indescribable sensations." 

Major Huger had already sent a pilot to 
the Victory and had done everything he could 
to assist Lafayette's companions. All the 
Major's family were so kind and hospitable 
that they instantly won Lafayette's heart. 
He judged that all Americans would be like 
them, and wrote to his wife, " the manners of 
this people are simple, honest, and dignified. 



72 LAFAYETTE 

The wish to oblige, the love of country, and 
freedom reign here together in sweet equality. 
All citizens are brothers. They belong to a 
country where every cranny resounds with the 
lovely name of Liberty. My sympathy with 
them makes me feel as if I had been here for 
twenty years." It was well for him that his 
first reception in America was so pleasant and 
that he remembered it with such delight, for he 
was later to find that some Americans were 
not so cordial toward him. 

If he was delighted with the Hugers, the 
Major and his son Francis were equally de- 
lighted with the young Frenchman. And, 
strangely enough, the little boy Francis, who 
had seized Lafayette's hand on that June night 
in 1777, was later to try to rescue his hero from 
a prison in Europe. 

The Marquis and his friends thought they 
had had quite enough of life on shipboard for 
the present, and so decided to go to Charles- 
town over the country roads. The pilot that 
had been furnished by Major Huger came 
back with word that there was not sufficient 
water for the Victory to stay in Georgetown 
Bay, and Lafayette ordered the ship, in charge 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 78 

of the pilot, to sail to Charlestown. Mean- 
time he and his companions, with horses of the 
Major's, rode to that seaport. As soon as he 
arrived there he heard that there were a num- 
ber of English cruisers on that part of the 
coast, and so he at once sent word to Captain 
Leboucier to beach the Victory and burn 
her, rather than let her be captured by the 
cruisers. 

The Victory, however, sailed safely into 
Charlestown without sighting a hostile sail, and 
the captain unloaded Lafayette's supplies and 
his own private cargo. Later the sloop was 
loaded with rice and set sail again, but 
was wrecked on a bar and became a total 
loss. 

No welcome could have been warmer than 
that Lafayette received in Charlestown. A 
dinner was given him, where the French offi- 
cers met the American generals Gulden, 
Howe, and Moultrie. All houses were thrown 
open to him, and he was taken to inspect the 
fortifications and driven through the beautiful 
country in the neighborhood. How pleased 
he was he showed in a letter to Adrienne. 
" The city of Charlestown," he wrote, " is one 



74 LAFAYETTE 

of the prettiest and the best built that I have 
ever seen, and its inhabitants are most agree- 
able. The American women are very pretty, 
very unaffected, and exhibit a charming neat- 
ness, — a quality which is most studiously culti- 
vated here, much more even than in England. 
What enchants me here is that all the citizens 
are brethren. There are no poor people in 
America, nor even what we call peasants. All 
the citizens have a moderate property, and all 
have the same rights as the most powerful pro- 
prietor. The inns are very different from 
those of Europe: the innkeeper and his wife 
sit at table with you, do the honors of a good 
repast, and on leaving, you pay without 
haggling. When you do not choose to go to 
an inn, you can find country houses where it is 
enough to be a good American to be received 
with such attentions as in Europe would be 
paid to friends." 

That certainly speaks well for the hospitality 
of South Carolina! 

He did not mean to tell his plans, however, 
until he should reach Philadelphia, where the 
Congress of the United States was sitting. 
" I have every reason to feel highly gratified 



FOR YOUXG AMERICAXS 7.5 

at my reception in Charlestown," he wrote, 
" but I have not yet explained my plans to 
any one. I judge it best to wait until I have 
presented myself to the Congress before mak- 
ing a statement as to the projects I have in 
view." 

He had only one difficulty in the seaport 
town. AMien he started to sell the Victory 
and her cargo he found that the men who had 
sold him the ship and Captain Leboucier had 
so entangled him with agTeements and com- 
missions, all of which he had signed without 
properly reading in his haste to sail from 
Bordeaux, that, instead of receiving any 
money, he was actually in debt. To pay this 
off and get the needed fmids to take his com- 
panions and himself to Philadelphia he had to 
borrow money, but fortunately there were 
plenty of people in Charlesto\^Ti who were 
ready to help him out of that difficulty. 

With the money borrowed from these well- 
disposed people Lafayette bought horses and 
carriages to take his party over the nine hun- 
dred miles that lay between Charlesto^^n and 
Philadelphia. On June twenty-fifth the ex- 
pedition started. In front rode a French of- 



76 LAFAYETTE 

ficer dressed in the uniform of a hussar. Next 
came a heavy open carriage, in which sat 
Lafayette and De Kalb, and close behind it 
rode Lafayette's body-servant. Then there 
followed a chaise with two colonels, the coun- 
selors of the Marquis, another chaise witK 
more French officers, still another with the 
baggage, and finally, as rear-guard, a negro on 
horseback. 

The country roads were frightful for travel; 
indeed for much of the way they could scarcely 
be called roads at all, being simply primitive 
clearings through the woods. The guide kept 
losing his way, and the carriages bumped along 
over roots and logs in a hot, blistering sun. 
As far as this particular journey went, the 
Frenchmen must have thought that travel was 
very much easier in their own country. One 
accident followed another ; within four days the 
chaises had been jolted into splinters and the 
horses had gone lame. The travelers had to 
buy other wagons and horses, and to lighten 
their outfit kept leaving part of their baggage 
on the way. Sometimes they had to walk, 
often they went hungry, and many a night 
they slept in the woods. They began to ap- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 77 

preciate that this new country, land of liberty 
though it was, had many disadvantages when 
it came to the matter of travel. 

From Petersburg in Virginia Lafayette 
wrote to Adrienne. " You have heard," said 
he, " how brilliantly I started out in a carriage. 
I have to inform you that we are now on horse- 
back after having broken the wagons in my 
usual praiseworthy fashion, and I expect to 
write you before long that we have reached our 
destination on foot." 

Yet, in spite of all these discomforts, the 
Marquis was able to enjoy much of the jour- 
ney. He studied the language of the people 
he met, he admired the beautiful rivers and the 
great forests, and he kept pointing out to his 
companions how much better the farmers here 
lived than the peasants of his own country. 
At least there was plenty of land for every one 
and no grasping overlords to take all the 
profits. 

The journey lasted a month. The party 
paid a visit to Governor Caswell in North 
Carolina and stopped at Petersburg and 
Annapolis, where Lafayette met Major Brice, 
who later became his aide-de-camp. On July 



78 LAFAYETTE 

twenty-seventh the travel-worn party reached 
Philadelphia, which was then the capital of the 
United States. 

The outlook for the Americans was gloomy 
enough then. New York was in the hands of 
the enemy, Burgoyne's army had captured 
Ticonderoga and was threatening to separate 
New England from the rest of the country, 
and Howe was preparing to attack Philadel- 
phia with a much larger army than Washing- 
ton could bring against him. It would have 
seemed just the time when any help from 
abroad should have been doubly welcome, and 
yet as a matter of fact the Congress was not 
so very enthusiastic about it. 

The reason for this was that already a great 
number of adventurers had come to America 
from the different countries of Europe and 
asked for high commands in the American 
army. Many of them were soldiers of con- 
siderable experience, and they all thought that 
they would make much better officers than the 
ill-trained men of the new republic. Some of 
them also quickly showed that they were eager 
for money, and one and all insisted on trying 
to tell Congress exactly what it ought to do. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 79 

Quite naturally the Americans preferred to 
manage affairs in their own way. 

George Washington had already sent a pro- 
test to Congress. " Their ignorance of our 
language and their inability to recruit men," 
he said, " are insurmountable obstacles to their 
being ingrafted into our continental battalions ; 
for our officers, who have raised their men, and 
have served through the war upon pay that has 
hitherto not borne their expenses, would be 
disgusted if foreigners were put over their 
heads; and I assure you, few or none of these 
gentlemen look lower than field-officers' com- 
missions. To give them all brevets, by which 
they have rank, and draw pay without doing 
any service, is saddling the continent with vast 
expense ; and to form them into corps would be 
only establishing corps of officers; for, as I 
have said before, they cannot possibly raise any 
men." 

It was true that Silas Deane had been in- 
structed to offer commissions to a few French 
officers, whose experience might help the 
Americans, but he had scattered commissions 
broadcast, and some of these men had proved 
of little use. One of them, Du Coudray, had 



80 LAFAYETTE 

arrived and insisted on commanding the artil- 
lery with the rank of major-general, and had 
aroused so much opposition that Generals 
Greene, Sullivan, and Knox had threatened to 
resign if his demands were granted. Congress 
was therefore beginning to look askance at 
many of the men who bore Silas Deane's com- 
missions. 

That was the state of affairs when Lafayette, 
confident of a warm welcome, reached Phila- 
delphia and presented himself and his friends 
to John Hancock, the president of Congress.. 
Hancock may have received letters concern- 
ing the young Frenchman from Deane and 
Benjamin Franklin in Paris, but, if he had, 
he had paid little attention to them, and was 
inclined to regard this young man of nineteen 
as simply another adventurer from Europe. 
With a scant word of welcome Hancock re- 
ferred Lafayette to Gouverneur Morris, who, 
he said, " had such matters in charge." 

The Frenchmen went to see Morris, but to 
him also they appeared only a new addition to 
the many adventurers already hanging about, 
looking for high commands. He put off deal- 
ing with Lafayette and De Kalb. " Meet me 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 81 

to-morrow at the door of Congress, gentle- 
men," said he. " I will look over your papers 
in the meantime and will see what I can do 
for you.'* 

The two new arrivals kept the appointment 
promptly, but Morris was not on hand. After 
they had cooled their heels for some time he 
appeared, bringing with him Mr. Lovell, the 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Af- 
fairs. " Matters that concern France are in 
Mr. Lovell's charge," said Morris. " Please 
deal with him after this." 

Lovell bowed to the strangers. " I under- 
stand, gentlemen," said he, " that you have 
authority from Mr. Deane? " 

" Certainly, sir," De Kalb answered. *' Our 
papers and agreements show that." 

Lovell frowned. " This is very annoying," 
said he. " We authorized Mr. Deane to send 
us four French engineers, but instead he has 
sent us a number of engineers who are no 
engineers and some artillerists who have never 
seen service. Mr. Franklin, however, has sent 
us the four engineers we wanted. There is 
nothing for you to do here, gentlemen. We 
needed a few experienced officers last year, but 



82 LAFAYETTE 

now we have plenty, and can promise no more 
positions. I must bid you good-morning." 

Here was a dashing blow to all their eager 
wishes. Surprise and disappointment showed 
in their faces. 

" But, sir," began De Kalb, " Mr. Deane 
promised " 

" Well, Mr. Deane has exceeded his au- 
thority," declared Lovell. " He has prom- 
ised too much and we cannot recognize his 
authority. We haven't even a colonel's com- 
mission to give to any foreign officers, to say 
nothing of a major-general's. The Congress 
is very much annoyed by these constant de- 
mands, and General Washington says he won't 
be disturbed by any more requests. I am 
sorry to disappoint you, but under the circum- 
stances I can promise you nothing. Again I 
must bid you good-morning." 

Lovell returned to Congress, leaving the 
Frenchmen much discomfited. De Kalb be- 
gan to storm, and finally spoke angrily of the 
way they had been treated by Deane. " It is 
not to be borne!" he cried. "I will take 
action against Deane! I will have damages 
for this indignity he has put upon us ! " 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 88 

Fortunately Lafayette was more even-tem- 
pered. In spite of this rebuff at the outset he 
meant to achieve his goal. He turned to the 
angry De Kalb and laid his hand restrainingly 
on the latter's arm. " Let us not talk of 
damages, my friend," he said. " It is more 
important for us to talk of doing. It is true 
that Congress didn't ask us to leave our homes 
and cross the sea to lead its army. But I will 
not go back now. If the Congi-ess will not 
accept me as a major-general, I wiU fight for 
American liberty as a volunteer! " 



''1 WILL FIGHT FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY 
AS A VOLUNTEER!'^ 

Lafayette, standing outside the door of the 
American Congress in Philadelphia, refused 
the commission in the American army that had 
been promised him by Silas Deane, spoke these 
words of encouragement to his disappointed 
and indignant friends who had crossed with 
him from France. " If the Congress will not 
accept me as a major-general, I will fight for 
American liberty as a volunteer! " he said; and, 
having come to this decision, he immediately 
proceeded to put it into effect. He went to 
his lodgings and wrote a letter to John Han- 
cock, president of Congress. 

Lafayette's letter explained the reasons why 
he had come to the United States and re- 
counted the many difficulties he had had to 
overcome. He stated that he thought that the 
promise he had received from Silas Deane, the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 85 

approval of Benjamin Franklin, and the sacri- 
fices he had himself made ought to lead Con- 
gress to give a friendly hearing to his request. 
He said that he understood how Congress had 
been besieged by foreign officers seeking high 
rank in the army, but added that he only asked 
two favors. These were, in his own words, 
" First, that I serve without pay and at my 
own expense ; and, the other, that I be allowed 
to serve at first as a volunteer." 

This letter was a great surprise to John 
Hancock and the other leaders of Congress. 
Here was a young French officer of family and 
wealth who was so deeply interested in their 
cause that he was eager to serve as an unpaid 
volunteer! He was a different type from the 
others who had come begging for favors. 
Hancock looked up the letter that Franklin 
had written about the Marquis, and read, 
" Those who censure him as imprudent do 
nevertheless applaud his spirit, and we are 
satisfied that the civilities and respect that may 
be shown him will be serviceable to our affairs 
here, as pleasing not only to his powerful rela- 
tions and to the court, but to the whole French 
nation." 



86 LAFAYETTE 

Hancock was impressed; perhaps they had 
made a mistake in treating this Marquis de 
Lafayette in such cavalier fashion. So he sent 
another member of Congress to see the young 
Frenchman and instructed him to treat Lafay- 
ette with the greatest courtesy. And the re- 
sult of this interview was that Hancock's 
emissary was quickly convinced of Lafayette's 
absolute honesty of purpose and intense desire 
to help the United States. 

Having reached this conclusion Hancock de- 
cided to make amends and do the honorable 
thing, and so, on July 31, 1777, Congress 
passed the following resolution: " Whereas, 
the Marquis de Lafayette, out of his great zeal 
to the cause of liberty, in which the United 
States are engaged, has left his family and 
connections, and, at his own expense, come 
over to offer his services to the United States, 
without pension or particular allowance, and is 
anxious to risk his life in our cause, therefore. 
Resolved, that his services be accepted, and 
that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious 
family, and connections, he have the rank and 
commission of major-general in the army of 
the United States." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 87 

How fortunate it was that Lafayette had 
not been daunted at the outset, or discouraged 
as De Kalb and his companions had been! 
His great dream had come true as a result of 
perseverance; he had been welcomed by Con- 
gress, and was, at nineteen, a major-general in 
the army of liberty ! 

But he did not forget those companions who 
had crossed the sea with the same desires as 
his own. In the letter he wrote to Congress, 
penned in his own quaint English, — a letter 
now in the State Department at Washing- 
ton, — after thanking " the Honorable mr. 
Hancok," as he spelled it, and expressing his 
gratitude to Congress, he said, " it is now as 
an american that I'l mention every day to con- 
gress the officers who came over with me, whose 
interests are for me as my own, and the con- 
sideration which they deserve by their merit, 
their ranks, their state and reputation in 
france." 

He was unable, however, to do much for 
these friends, though one of them said, " He 
did everything that was possible for our ap- 
pointment, but in vain, for he had no in- 
fluence. But if he had his way, De Kalb 



88 LAFAYETTE 

would have been major-general and we should 
all have had places." 

Congress felt that it could not give them all 
commissions. Captain de Bedaulx, who was 
a veteran officer, was made a captain in the 
American army, one other was engaged as a 
draughtsman and engineer, and Lafayette 
kept two as his own aides-de-camp. Most of 
the others were sent back to France, their ex- 
penses being paid by Congress. As for De 
Kalb, he had given up his plans for high rank 
and preferment and was on his way to take 
passage on a ship for Europe when a mes- 
senger reached him with word that Congress, 
voting for one more major-general in the army, 
had elected him. 

Lafayette, in his letter to Hancock, had 
said that he wished to serve " near the person 
of General Washington till such time as he 
may think proper to entrust me with a division 
of the army." Events soon gave him the 
chance to meet the commander-in-chief. The 
arrival of Howe's fleet at the mouth of the 
Delaware River seemed to threaten Philadel- 
phia, and Washington left his camp in New 
Jersey to consult with Congress. Lafayette 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 89 

was invited to a dinner in Philadelphia to meet 
the commander-in-chief, and accepted eagerly. 
The Frenchman was greatl}^ impressed. " Al- 
though General Washington was surrounded 
by officers and private citizens," he wrote, " the 
majesty of his countenance and of his figure 
made it impossible not to recognize him ; he was 
especially distinguished also by the affability 
of his manners and the dignity with which he 
addressed those about him." 

Washington had already heard of Lafay- 
ette and found a chance for a long talk with 
him. On his part he was at once strongly 
attracted by the young Marquis. " You have 
made the greatest sacrifices for our cause, sir," 
Washington said, " and your evident zeal and 
generosity interest me deeply. I shall do my 
part toward making you one of us. I shall be 
greatly pleased to have you join my staff as a 
volunteer aid, and beg you to make my head- 
quarters your home, until events place you 
elsewhere. I beg you to consider yourself at 
all times as one of my military family, and I 
shall be glad to welcome you at the camp as 
speedily as you think proper. Of course I 
cannot promise you the luxuries of a court, but. 



90 LAFAYETTE 

as you have now become an American soldier, 
you will doubtless accommodate yourself to 
the fare of an American army, and submit with 
a good grace to its customs, manners, and 
privations." 

The next day Washington invited Lafay- 
ette to accompany him on a tour of inspection 
of the fortifications about Philadelphia. 

The General liked the Marquis, but was not 
quite certain how the latter could best be em- 
ployed. He wrote to Benjamin Harrison, 
who was a member of Congress, " As I under- 
stand the Marquis de Lafayette, it is certain 
that he does not conceive that his commission 
is merely honorary, but is given with a view to 
command a division of this army. It is true 
he has said that he is young and inexperienced ; 
but at the same time he has always accompanied 
it with a hint that, so soon as I shall think him 
fit for the command of a division, he shall be 
ready to enter upon his duties, and in the mean- 
time has offered his services for a smaller 
command. What the designs of Congress re- 
specting this gentleman were, and what line 
of conduct I am to pursue to comply with their 
design and his expectations — I know not and 




George Washington 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 91 

beg to be instructed. . . . Let me be- 
seech you, my good sir, to give me the senti- 
ments of Congress on this matter, that I may 
endeavor, as far as it is in my power, to comply 
with them." 

Mr. Harrison answered that Congress in- 
tended Lafayette's appointment to be regarded 
merely as an honorary one, and that the com- 
mander-in-chief was to use his own judgment 
concerning him. 

In the meantime Lafayette set out from 
Philadelphia to join Washington's army. 
That army, early in August, had begun its 
march eastward, hoping to cut off any British 
move about New York ; but the appearance of 
the British fleet off the Delaware had brought 
them to a halt, and Washington ordered them 
into camp near the present village of Harts - 
ville, on the old York Road leading out of 
Philadelphia. Here, on August twenty-first, 
Lafayette joined the army, just as the com- 
mander, with Generals Stirling, Greene, and 
Knox, was about to review the troops. 

It was indeed a sorry-looking army, accord- 
ing to the standards of Europe. There were 
about eleven thousand men, poorly armed and 



92 LAFAYETTE 

wretchedly clad. Their clothes were old and 
ragged, hardly any two suits alike, and the 
men knew little enough about military tactics. 
Courage and resolution had to take the place 
of science; but there was no lack of either 
bravery or determination. Yet some of the 
foreign officers who had seen the American 
army had spoken very slightingly of it, and 
Washington said to Lafayette, " It is some- 
what embarrassing to us to show ourselves to 
an officer who has just come from the army of 
France." 

Lafayette, always tactful, always sympa- 
thetic, smiled. " I am here to learn and not 
to teach, Your Excellency," he answered. 

A council of war followed the review, and 
the commander asked the Marquis to attend it. 
The council decided that if the British were 
planning to invade the Carolinas it was unwise 
to attempt to follow them south, and that the 
army had better try to recapture New York. 
But at that very moment a messenger brought 
word that the British fleet had sailed into 
Chesapeake Bay, and, hearing this, Washington 
concluded to march his army to the south of 
Philadelphia and prepare to defend that city. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 93 

Ragged and out-at-elbows as the small 
American army was, it marched proudly 
through the streets of Philadelphia. With 
sprigs of green branches in their hats the sol- 
diers stepped along to the tune of fife and 
drum, presenting, at least in the eyes of the 
townspeople, a very gallant appearance. 
Lafayette rode by the side of Washington, 
glad that the opportunity had come for him to 
be of service. 

Very soon he had a chance to share danger 
with his commander. When the troops ar- 
rived on the heights of Wilmington, Washing- 
ton, with Lafayette and Greene, made a recon- 
naissance, and, being caught by a storm and 
darkness, was obliged to spend the night so 
near to the British lines that he might easily 
have been discovered by a scout or betrayed 
into the hands of the enemy. 

Meantime General Howe and Lord Corn- 
wallis had landed eighteen thousand veteran 
troops near what is now Elkton in Maryland, 
and was advancing toward Philadelphia. To 
defend the city Washington drew up his forces 
on September ninth at Chadd's Ford on the 
Brandywine. One column of Howe's army 



94 LAFAYETTE 

inarched to this place and on September 
eleventh succeeded in driving across the river 
to the American camp. The other colmim, 
under command of Comwallis, made a long 
detour through the thickly wooded country, 
and bore down on the right and rear of Wash- 
ington's army, threatening its total destruc- 
tion. 

The American commander at once sent Gen- 
eral Sullivan, with five thousand men, to meet 
this force on the right. Realizing that most of 
the fighting would be done there, Lafayette 
asked and was given permission to join Gen- 
eral Sullivan. Riding up as a volunteer aid, 
he found the half -formed wings of the Amer- 
ican army attacked by the full force under 
Comwallis. The Americans had to fall back, 
two of General Sullivan's aids were killed, and 
a disorderly retreat began. Lafayette leaped 
from his horse, and, sword in hand, called on 
the soldiers to make a stand. 

He checked the retreat for a few moments; 
other troops came up, and the Americans 
offered gallant resistance. Lafayette was 
shot through the calf of the leg, but, appar- 
ently unconscious of the wound, continued 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 95 

to encourage his men. Then Cornwallis's 
brigades swept forward again, and Sullivan's 
troops had to give ground before the greater 
numbers. The battle became a general rout. 
Gimat, Lafayette's aid, saw that the young 
man was wounded, and helped him to mount 
his horse. The wounded man then tried to 
rejoin Washington, but soon after he had to 
stop to have his leg bandaged. 

The first British column had driven the 
American troops from Chadd's Ford, and the 
latter, together with Sullivan's men, fell back 
along the road to Chester. Washington at- 
tempted to cover the retreat with rear-guard 
fighting, but night found him pursued by both 
divisions of the enemy. In the retreat Lafay- 
ette came to a bridge, and made a stand until 
Washington and his aids reached him. Then 
together they rode on to Chester, and there the 
Frenchman's wound was properly dressed by 
a surgeon. 

The battle had been in one sense a defeat for 
the Americans, but it had shown General 
Howe the fine fighting quality of Washing- 
ton's men, and the American commander had 
been able to save the bulk of his army, when 



96 LAFAYETTE 

Howe had expected to capture it entire. To- 
day a little monument stands on a ridge near 
the Quaker meeting-house outside Chadd's 
Ford, erected, so the inscription says, " by the 
citizens and school children of Chester County," 
because, '* on the rising ground a short dis- 
tance south of this spot, Lafayette was 
wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, Sep- 
tember 11, 1777." And the monument also 
bears these words of Lafayette: "The honor 
to have mingled my blood with that of many 
other American soldiers on the heights of the 
Brandywine has been to me a source of pride 
and delight." 

The battle-field of the Brandywine was only 
about twenty-six miles from Philadelphia, and 
the cannonade had been clearly heard in the 
city. The word the couriers brought filled the 
people with alarm; many citizens began to fly 
from the city and Congress took its departure, 
to meet at the town of York, one hundred miles 
to the west. The Americans wounded at the 
Brandywine were sent to Philadelphia, and 
Lafayette was conveyed there by water. From 
that city he was sent up the Delaware River 
to Bristol. There he met Henry Laurens, who 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 97 

had succeeded John Hancock as the president 
of Congress, and Laurens, being on his way 
to York, took Lafayette with hini in his own 
carriage to the Old Sun Inn at Bethlehem, the 
quiet home of a people called the Moravians, 
fifty miles to the north of Philadelphia. In 
later times Henry Laurens, by one of those 
strange turns of the wheel of fate, became a 
prisoner in the Tower of London, and Madame 
de Lafayette repaid his kindness to her hus- 
band by seeking the aid of the French govern- 
ment to secure his release. 

There could have been no better place for 
a wounded man to recover his strength than in 
the peaceful little Moravian community at 
Bethlehem. For six weeks he stayed there, 
and the people tended him like one of them- 
selves. He could not use his leg, but he spent 
part of his enforced idleness drawing up plans 
for the invasion of the British colonies in the 
West Indies. He also wrote long letters to 
his wife in France. " Be entirely free from 
anxiety as to my wound," he said in one of 
these, " for all the doctors in America are 
aroused in my behalf. I have a friend who 
has spoken for me in a way to ensure my being 



98 LAFAYETTE 

well taken care of; and that is General Wash- 
ington. That estimable man, whose talents 
and whose virtues I admired before, whom I 
venerate the more now as I learn to know him, 
has been kind enough to me to become my 
intimate friend. His tender interest in me 
quicldy won my heart. • . . When he 
sent his surgeon-in-chief to me, he directed him 
to care for me as I were his son, because he 
loved me so much; and having learned that I 
wanted to join the army too soon again, he 
wrote me a letter full of tenderness in which 
he admonished me to wait until I should be 
entirely well." 

Wonderful it was that Washington, beset 
and harassed with all the burdens of a com- 
mander-in-chief, could yet find the time to 
pay so much attention to his wounded French 
aid! 

Lafayette knew well that matters looked 
dark then for the American republic. In an- 
other letter to Adrienne he said, " Now that 
you are the wife of an American general of- 
ficer, I must give you a lesson. People will 
say, * They have been beaten.' You must an- 
swer, * It is true, but with two armies equal 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 99 

in number, and on level ground, old soldiers 
always have an advantage over new ones; be- 
sides, the Americans inflicted a greater loss 
than they sustained.' Then, people will add, 
' That's all very well ; but Philadelphia, the 
capital of America, the highroad of liberty, is 
taken.' You will reply politely, * You are 
fools! Philadelphia is a poor city, open on 
every side, of which the port was already 
closed. The presence of Congress made it 
famous, I know not why; that's what this 
famous city amounts to, which, by the way, we 
shall retake sooner or later.' If they continue 
to ply you with questions, send them about 
their business in terms that the Vicomte de 
Noailles will supply you with." 

It was true that General Howe had taken 
Philadelphia while Lafayette had to nurse his 
wounded leg at Bethlehem. It was not until 
the latter part of October that the Marquis 
was able to rejoin the army, and then his wound 
had not sufficiently healed to allow him to wear 
a boot. The battle of Germantown, by which 
Washington hoped to dislodge the British 
from Philadelphia, had been fought, and the 
year's campaign was about to close. Two 



100 LAFAYETTE 

battles had been lost by the Americans in the 
south, but in the north the British general 
Burgoyne had been obliged to surrender. 
Washington's headquarters were now at Meth- 
acton Hill, near the Schuylkill River, and 
there Lafayette went, hoping for active service. 
His chance for service came soon. Corn- 
wallis had entered New Jersey with five thou- 
sand men, and General Greene Avas sent to 
oppose him with an equal number. Lafayette 
joined Greene as a volunteer, and at Mount 
Holly he was ordered to reconnoitre. On 
November twenty-fifth he found the enemy at 
Gloucester. Their forage wagons were cross- 
ing the river to Philadelphia, and Lafayette, 
in order to make a more thorough examination 
of their position, went dangerously far out on 
a tongue of land. Here he might easily have 
been captured, but he was quick enough to 
escai3e without injury. Later, at four o'clock 
in the afternoon, he found himself before a 
post of Hessians, four hundred men with 
cannon. Lafayette had one hundred and 
fifty sharpshooters under Colonel Butler, and 
about two hundred militiamen and light-horse. 
He did not know the strength of the enemy, 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 101 

but he attacked, and drove them back so boldly 
that Cornwallis, thinking he must be dealing 
with all of Greene's forces, allowed his troops 
to retreat to Gloucester with a loss of sixty 
men. 

This was the first real opportunity Lafayette 
had had to show his skill in leading men, and 
he had done so well that General Greene was 
delighted. In the report he sent to Wash- 
ington he said, " The Marquis is charmed with 
the spirited behavior of the militia and rifle 
corps. They drove the enemy about a mile 
and kept the ground until dark. . . . The 
iNIarquis is determined to be in the way of 
danger." 

Lafayette had shown himself to be a daring 
and skilful officer; more than that, he had en- 
deared himself to the men under his command. 
And this was more than could be said for most 
of the foreign officers in the American army; 
many of them devoted the larger part of their 
time to criticizing everything about them. 
Baron de Kalb expressed his opmion of these 
adventurers from across the Atlantic in force- 
ful terms. " These people," said he, " think 
of nothing but their incessant intrigues and 



102 LAFAYETTE 

backbitings. They hate each other like the 
bitterest enemies, and endeavor to injure each 
other whenever an opportunity^ offers. Lafay- 
ette is the sole exception. . . . Lafayette 
is much liked and is on the best of terms with 
Washington." 

It was natural, therefore, that Washington, 
having had such a good account of the young 
Frenchman at the skirmish at Gloucester, 
should be willing to gratify his desire for a 
regular command in the army. So the com- 
mander-in-chief wrote to Congress concern- 
ing the Marquis. " There are now some 
vacant positions in the army," said Washing- 
ton, " to one of which he may be appointed, if 
it should be the pleasure of Congress. I am 
convinced he possesses a large share of that 
military ardor that characterizes the nobility of 
his country." 

And Congress agreed with Washington, and 
voted that " the Marquis de Lafayette be ap- 
pointed to the command of a division in the 
Continental Army." On December 4, 1777, 
the Frenchman was given the command of the 
Virginia division. He was twenty years old, 
and it was only a little more than a year since 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 108 

he had first heard from the Duke of Gloucester 
about the fight of the American farmers for 
liberty. He had accomplished a great deal in 
that year, and had won his spurs by pluck, by 
perseverance, and by ability. 

Naturally he was delighted at this evidence 
of the confidence that Washington and the 
American Congress placed in him. He wrote 
to his father-in-law, the Duke d' Ayen, the man 
who had tried his best to keep him from com- 
ing to America, " At last I have what I have 
always wished for, — the command of a divi- 
sion. It is weak in point of numbers; it is 
almost naked, and I must make both clothes 
and recruits; but I read, I study, I examine, 
I listen, I reflect, and upon the result of all 
this I make an effort to form my opinion and 
to put into it as much common sense as I can 
. . . for I do not want to disappoint the 
confidence that the Americans have so kindly 
placed in me." 

Events were soon to test both his ability and 
his mettle. 



VI 

LAFAYETTE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF 
WASHINGTON 

In December, 1777, Washington's army 
went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. 
That winter was to test the courage and en- 
durance of the soldiers, for they were ill-clad, 
ill-provisioned, and the road to victory ap- 
peared a long and weary one. Fortunately 
the commander-in-chief was a man of intrepid 
soul, one who could instill confidence into the 
men about him. 

Lafayette quickly found that all the people 
of the young republic were not in agreement 
about the war. Men called Tories joined the 
British army, and in countless other ways ham- 
pered the work of Congress. Business was at 
such a standstill that it was almost impossible 
to obtain clothing, shoes, and the other supplies 
that were so urgently needed, and as Congress 
had no power to impose and collect taxes it was 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 105 

hard to raise any money. The different states 
had each its jealousies of the others and each 
its own ends to serve, and indeed in 1777 the 
union was so loosely knitted that it was a won- 
der that it held together at all. 

Washington had chosen Valley Forge as his 
winter quarters because from there he could 
watch the enemy, keep the British to their own 
picket lines, and cut off supplies going into 
Philadelphia. Otherwise, however, the place 
had little to recommend it. The farmhouses 
in the neighborhood could hold only a few 
of the two thousand men who were on the 
sick-list, whose shoeless feet were torn and 
frozen from marching and who were ill from 
hunger and exposure. For the rest the sol- 
diers had to build their own shelters, and they 
cut logs in the woods, covered them with mud, 
and made them into huts, each of which had to 
house fourteen men. There the American 
troops, lacking necessary food and blankets, 
shivered and almost starved during the long 
winter. 

There were times when Washington would 
liave liked to make a sortie or an attack on the 
enemy, but his men were not in condition for 



106 LAFAYETTE 

it. Constantly he wrote to Congress, urging 
relief for his arm5^ Once a number of mem- 
bers of Congress paid a visit to Valley Forge, 
and later sent a remonstrance to the com- 
mander-in-chief, urging him not to keep his 
army in idleness but to march on Philadelphia. 
To this Washington answered, " I can assure 
those gentlemen that it is a much easier and 
less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in 
a comfortable room, by a good fireside, than to 
occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost 
and snow, without clothes or blankets. How- 
ever, although they seem to have little feeling 
for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel 
superabundantly for them; and from my soul 
I pity those miseries, which it is neither in my 
power to relieve nor prevent." 

All those hardships Lafayette also shared, 
setting his men an example of patience and 
fortitude that did much to help them through 
the rigorous winter, and winning again and 
again the praise of his commander for his 
devotion. 

In the meantime some men of influence, 
known as the " Conway Cabal," from the name 
of one of the leaders, plotted to force Wash- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 107 

ington from the chief coiiiinand, and put Gen- 
eral Greene in his place. They wanted to use 
Lafayette as a catspaw, and decided that the 
first step was to separate him from Washing- 
ton's influence. With this object in view they 
planned an invasion of Canada, the command 
of the expedition to be given to Lafayette. 
But Lafayette saw through the plotting, and 
refused to lead the expedition except under 
Washington's orders and with De Kalb as his 
second in command. He also showed where 
he stood when he was invited to York to meet 
some of the members of Congress and gen- 
erals who were opposing his leader. At a 
dinner given in his honor he rose, and, lifting 
his glass, proposed a toast to " The health of 
George Washington, our noble commander-in- 
chief ! " The party had to drink the toast, and 
they saw that the Frenchman was not to be 
swerved from his loyalty to his chief. 

Congress had decided on the expedition to 
Canada, though the conspirators now saw that 
their plot had failed, and so Lafayette set out 
for Albany in February, 1778, to take com- 
mand of the army of invasion. But when he 
got there he found that nothing had been done 



108 LAFAYETTE 

by way of preparation, and that none of those 
in authority were able to help him. Twelve 
hundred ill-provided men were all he could 
raise, altogether too few and too poorly armed 
for such an ambitious enterprise. Very much 
disappointed, he had to give up the idea of 
leading such an army. More and more he 
grew convinced that all the hopes of America 
rested on Washington. 

That Washington might know his feelings, 
Lafayette wrote to him. " Take away for an 
instant," he said, " that modest diffidence of 
yourself (which, pardon my freedom, my dear 
general, is sometimes too great, and I wish you 
could know, as well as myself, what difference 
there is between you and any other man), and 
you would see very plainly that, if you were 
lost for America, there is no one who could 
keep the army and the revolution for six 
months. . . . I am now fixed to your fate, 
and I shall follow it and sustain it as well by 
my sword as by all means in my power. You 
will pardon my importunity in favor of the 
sentiment which dictated it." 

Washington was no less devoted to Lafay- 
ette. When the latter returned disappointed 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 109 

from Albany the commander said to him, 
" However sensibly your ardor for glor}^ may 
make you feel this disappointment you may be 
assured that your character stands as fair as it 
ever did, and that no new enterprise is neces- 
sary to wipe off an imaginary stain." 

And Washington's view was now so 
strongly held by Congress that it immediately 
voted that it had " a high sense of the prudence, 
activity, and zeal of the Marquis de Lafay- 
ette," and that it was " fully persuaded noth- 
ing has, or would have been, wanting on his 
part or on the part of the officers who accom- 
panied him to give the expedition the utmost 
possible effect." 

Lafayette went back to Valley Forge to 
cheer his soldiers, and there, early in May, 
1778, news came that Benjamin Franklin had 
succeeded in his efforts in France and that the 
government of Louis XVI. had decided on 
" armed interference " in the affairs of Amer- 
ica, and that a treaty of alliance had been 
signed between the United States and the 
French king. 

The army at Valley Forge was wild with de- 
light at this news. How it must have cheered 



no LAFAYETTE 

Lafayette to know that his own country now 
stood with the young republic of the west! 
Washington proclaimed a holiday and held a 
review of his troops. Then the commander 
planned a new and more vigorous campaign. 

The British, now foreseeing possible French 
as well as American attack, decided to 
give up Philadelphia and fall back on New 
York. Washington learned of this, and in 
order to keep a check on the movements of his 
opponents, he sent Lafaj^ette with a strong 
force of two thousand picked men to keep as 
close to the British lines as possible. 

Lafayette joyfully led his command to a 
ridge called Barren Hill that overlooked the 
Schuylkill. From here he could watch the 
road from Philadelphia, and he at once forti- 
fied his camp. British scouts brought reports 
of this to their generals, and the latter decided 
it would be a capital plan to defeat the French- 
man's forces and capture the Marquis. This 
they considered so easy to accomplish that 
Generals Howe and Clinton sent out invita- 
tions to their friends to a dinner at their head- 
quarters " to meet Monsieur the Marquis de 
Lafayette." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 111 

On the morning of May twentieth eight 
thousand British and Hessian soldiers with 
fifteen pieces of artillery marched out of Phila- 
delx^hia by one road to take Lafayette in the 
rear, while by another road a force of gren- 
adiers and cavalry marched to attack his right 
wing, and a third colunm, commanded by Gen- 
erals Howe and Clinton in person, with the 
admiral, Lord Howe, accompanying them as a 
volunteer, took a third road to attack the IMar- 
quis in front. In this way the enemy forces 
Avere completely surrounding the American 
position, except on the side of the river, by 
which they considered escape impossible. 

Lafayette was talking with a young woman 
who had agreed to go into Philadelphia and 
try to obtain information on the pretext of vis- 
iting her relations there, when word was 
brought him that redcoats had been seen in the 
rear. He was expecting a small force of dra- 
goons, and his first idea was that it was these 
who wxre approaching. But, being a prudent 
commander, he at once sent out scouts, and 
these quickly reported the advance of a large 
force. Immediately he made a change of front 
under cover of the stone houses and the woods. 



112 LAFAYETTE 

Then messengers dashed up with news of the 
real state of affairs. His little command was 
about to be attacked in a three-cornered fight 
by an overwhelming number of the enemy. 

It was a ticklish position, and Lafayette 
came within a hair's breadth of being trapped 
and captured. His men called out to him that 
he was completely surrounded. In the confu- 
sion of the moment he had to keep on smiling, 
as he afterward said. It was a test fit to try 
the skill of a much more experienced general 
than the young Frenchman. But this one had 
studied his ground thoroughly, and lost not a 
moment in deciding on his course. Back of 
his men was a road, hidden from the British by 
trees, which led to a little-used crossing known 
as Matson's Ford, a place unknown to the en- 
emj^ though they were, as a matter of fact, 
much nearer to it than Lafayette was. 

The Marquis quickly threw out " false heads 
of columns,'* that is, a few men here and there, 
who were to march through the woods at dif- 
ferent points, and give the impression that his 
whole army was advancing to battle. The 
British general saw these " false heads " and, 
taking them to be the advance guards of the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 118 

Americans, halted to form his lines. Mean- 
time Lafayette sent all his other troops at the 
double-quick down the hidden road and across 
the ford, bringing up the rear himself and 
waiting until he was joined by the men who 
had formed the false columns. 

The small American army was almost all 
across the ford before the enemy realized his 
mistake and began to attack. Then, as the 
three British columns climbed the hill to crush 
the Americans according to their plans, they 
met only each other. They tried to make an 
attack on Lafayette's rear, but by that time he 
was out of their reach. He crossed the Schuyl- 
kill and reached the camp at Valley Forge 
without the loss of a single man, to the great 
delight and relief of Washington, who had 
heard of the danger in which Lafayette stood 
and had ordered signal guns fired to warn him 
of it. 

Lafayette had a good story to tell the com- 
mander-in-chief on his return. A small body 
of Indian warriors had been stationed in am- 
bush to attack any stray parties of the enemy. 
As the Indians lay in the bushes they saw a 
company of grenadiers in tall bearskin hats 



114 LAFAYETTE 

and scarlet coats coming up the road. Never 
having seen such men as these before the In- 
dians were seized with terror, threw down their 
arms, and yelling as loud as they could, made a 
dash for the river. The grenadiers, on their 
part, seeing the painted faces and hearing the 
yells, thought they had come on a crowd of 
devils, and hurried away as fast as they could 
in the opposite direction. 

Washington complimented Lafayette on 
what had really amounted to a victory, the 
bringing his men in safety from an attack by 
overwhelming forces, and advised Congress of 
the Frenchman's " timely and handsome re- 
treat in great order." 

And so Generals Howe and Clinton were 
unable to present to their guests at the dinner 
at their headquarters that evening " Monsieur 
the Marquis de Lafayette," as they had in- 
tended. 

If the British generals meant to use their 
armies in the field it was clear that they could 
not stay in Philadelphia indefinitely. As 
Franklin said, instead of their having taken 
Philadelphia, Philadelphia had taken them. 
They had spent the winter there in idleness. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 115 

and unless they purposed to spend the summer 
there in the same fashion they must be on the 
move. Washington foresaw this, and called a 
council of war to decide on plans for his forces, 
and at this council General Charles Lee, who 
Avas then second in command, insisted that the 
Americans were not strong enough to offer ef- 
fective oj)position to the enemy, although Gen- 
erals Greene, Wayne, Cadwalader, and La- 
fayette expressed contrary opinions. Then, 
early in the morning of June 18, 1778, General 
Howe's army evacuated Philadelphia, and 
crossed the Delaware on their way to New 
York. 

Washington instantly prepared to follow. 
General Maxwell was sent out in advance with 
a division of militia to impede the enemy's 
progress by burning bridges and throwing 
trees across the roads. The bulk of the Amer- 
ican army followed, and when they arrived 
near Princeton, in New Jersey, Washington 
called another council. Here Lafayette made 
a stirring plea for immediate action. But Lee 
again opposed this, and the council decided, 
against Washington's own judgment, not to 
bring on a general engagement with the encmv. 



116 LAFAYETTE 

Almost immediately, however, the advance 
of General Clinton threatened one of the 
American detachments, and Lee was ordered 
to check this. He declined to do so, saying 
it was contraiy to the decision of the council 
of war. At once the command was given to 
Lafayette, who took the appointment with the 
gTeatest eagerness. 

But the Marquis had hardly more than 
plaimed his advance when General Lee inter- 
fered again. The latter saw that if the move- 
ment was successful all the honor of it would 
go to Lafayette, and this was not at all accord- 
ing to his wishes. So he appealed to Wash- 
ington to replace him in his command, and also 
went to Lafayette and asked the latter to retire 
in his favor. " I place my fortune and my 
honor in your hands," he said; "you are too 
generous to destroy both the one and the other." 

He was right; Lafayette was too chivalrous 
to refuse such a request. Lee had placed 
Washington in an awkward situation, but the 
Frenchman's tact and good-feeling, qualities 
which had already greatly endeared him to all 
the Americans he had met, relieved the com- 
mander-in-chief of the need of offending Lee. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 117 

Lafayette immediately wrote to Washington, 
" I want to repeat to you in writing what I 
have told to you; which is, that if you believe 
it, or if it is believed, necessary or useful to the 
good of the service and the honor of General 
Lee to send him down with a couple of thou- 
sand men or any greater force, I will cheer- 
fully obey and serve him, not only out of duty, 
but out of what I owe to that gentleman's 
character." 

No wonder Washington liked a man who 
could be so unselfish as that! He gave the 
command back to Lee, and arranged that 
Lafayette should lead the advance. 

Early the following morning Washington 
ordered an attack on the British at ]Monmouth 
Court House, and on June 28, 1778, the battle 
of Monmouth was fought. The result might 
have been very different if Lafayette, and not 
Lee, had been in command. For Lee delayed, 
and when he did finally move forward he as- 
saulted what he thought was a division of the 
enemy, but what turned out to be the main 
body. He was driven back, tried another at- 
tack, got his officers confused by his contra- 
dictory orders, and at last gave the word for a 



118 LAFAYETTE 

retreat, which threatened to become a rout. 
At this point Washington rode up, questioned 
the officers, got no satisfactory answer as to 
what had happened, and was so indignant that 
when he reached General Lee he took the latter 
to task in the strongest terms. Then he gave 
instant orders to make a stand, and by his 
superb control of the situation succeeded in 
having his men repulse all further attacks. 

Lafayette meantime had led his cavalry in a 
charge, had done his best to stem the retreat, 
and when Washington arrived reformed his 
line upon a hill, and with the aid of a battery 
drove back the British. By his efforts and 
those of the commander-in-chief the day was 
finally partly saved and the American army 
manoeuvred out of disaster. 

Night came on and the troops camped where 
they were. Washington, wrapped in his cloak, 
slept at the foot of a tree, with Lafayette be- 
side him. And when they woke in the morning 
they found that the enemy had stolen away, 
leaving their wounded behind them. 

So the honors of war at Monmouth, in spite 
of General Lee, lay with Washington. The 
enemy, however, escaped across New Jersey 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 119 

and reached New York without any further 
attacks by the Americans. 

When Sir Henry Clinton arrived near 
Sandy Hook he found the English fleet riding 
at anchor in the lower bay, having just come 
from the Delaware. Heavy storms had broken 
through the narrow strip of sand that connects 
Sandy Hook with the mainland, and it was now 
divided by a deep channel. A bridge was 
made of the ships' boats, and Clinton's army 
crossed over to the Hook, and was distributed 
on Long Island, Staten Island, and in New 
York. In the meantime Washington moved 
his troops from Monmouth to Paramus, where 
the Americans rested. 

Now a French fleet of fourteen frigates and 
twelve battle-ships, under the command of 
Count d'Estaing, reached the mouth of the 
Delaware at about that time. Monsieur 
Gerard, the minister sent to the United States 
by the court of France, and Silas Deane, were 
on board, and when D'Estaing heard that Lord 
Howe's squadron had left the Delaware he sent 
Gerard and Deane up to Philadelphia in a 
frigate, and sailed along the coast to Sandy 
Hook, where he saw the English fleet at anchor 



120 LAFAYETTE 

inside. He had considerable advantage over 
Lord Howe in point of strength, and at once 
prepared to attack the enemy squadron. An- 
ticipating this, Washington crossed the Hud- 
son River at King's Ferry, and on July twen- 
tieth took up a position at White Plains. 

The French fleet, however, could not make 
the attack. They could find no pilots who 
were willing to take the large ships into New 
York harbor, for all the pilots agreed that 
there was not enough water there, and the 
French admiral's own soundings confirmed 
their opinion. 

Washington and D'Estaing therefore agreed 
on a joint expedition against Newport, in 
Rhode Island. Washington sent orders to 
General Sullivan at Providence to ask the 
states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
Rhode Island to supply enough militia to make 
up an army of five thousand men. At the same 
time he sent Lafayette with two thousand men 
from the Hudson to Providence to support the 
French naval attack. 

On July twenty-ninth the French fleet 
reached Point Judith and anchored about five 
miles from Newport. General Sullivan and 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 121 

Lafayette and some other officers went on 
board to make plans for the joint attack. The 
British troops numbered about six thousand 
men, and they were strongly intrenched. The 
allies had some four thousand men on the 
French ships and between nine and ten thou- 
sand Americans at Providence. 

Disputes arose as to the best plan of cam- 
paign; it was argued whether the men of the 
two nations would fight better separately or 
together. Then the English fleet appeared in 
the distance, and D'Estaing, considering that 
it was his chief business to destroy the enemy 
squadron, at once stood out to sea. A violent 
storm came up, driving the two fleets apart, 
and doing great damage to ships on both sides. 
When the storm subsided D'Estaing insisted 
on sailing his fleet to Boston to make needed 
repairs, and so the joint expedition came to an 
end, without having struck a blow. General 
Sullivan's plans were in confusion. Lafayette 
rode to Boston and begged the French admiral 
to come back as soon as he could. At last 
D'Estaing promised to land his sailors and 
march them overland to Newport; but before 
he could do this the British were strongly 



122 LAFAYETTE 

reinforced, and Lafayette had to gallop back to 
])rotect his own rear-guard forces. The Amer- 
icans Avere in peril, but again, as at Momiiouth, 
he Avas able to save them from defeat. 

There was great disappointment over the 
failure of the attack on Newport, and this was 
increased by the feeling that there had been 
disputes between the American and French 
commanders. Lafayette had all he could do 
to make each side appreciate the other. In 
this he was greatly helped by Washington, who 
AA^rote to both the French and the American 
generals, soothing their discontent, patching 
up their differences, and urging future union 
for the sake of the common cause. 

It was now autumn, and there was little 
prospect of a further campaign that year. 
Wearied by the many misunderstandings, dis- 
tressed by the failure of the joint attack, home- 
sick and sad over the news of the death of his 
little daughter in France, Lafayette decided 
to ask for a leave of absence and go back to 
France on furlough. In October he reached 
Philadelphia and presented his request. Wash- 
ington, much as he disliked to lose Lafayette's 
services even for a short time, seconded his 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 128 

wishes. And Coni^ress, which only sixteen 
months hefore had hesitated to accept his 
services, now did all it could to pay him the 
greatest honor. It thanked him for his high 
assistance and zeal, it directed the American 
minister in Paris to present him with a sword 
of honor, and it ordered its best war-ship, the 
frigate Alliance, to convey him to France. 
Henry Laurens, the president of Congress, 
wrote to King Louis XVI. that Congress could 
not allow Lafayette to depart without testify- 
ing its appreciation of his courage, devotion, 
patience, and the uniform excellence of con- 
duct which had won the confidence of the 
United States and the affection of its citi- 
zens. 

And finally Monsieur Gerard, the French 
minister at Philadelphia, wrote to his govern- 
ment in Paris, " You know how little inclined 
I am to flatter}^ but I cannot resist saying that 
the prudent, courageous, and amiable conduct 
of the Marquis de Lafayette has made him the 
idol of the Congress, the army, and the people 
of America." 

With words like these ringing in his ears, 
Lafayette said good-bye to George Washing- 



124 LAFAYETTE 

ton in October, 1778, and rode away from 
camp, bound for Boston, where he was to 
board the frigate Alliance. 



VII 

ROCHAMBEAU ARRIVES 

Lafayette, on his way to board the Alli- 
ance, rode into the town of Fishkill-on-the- 
Hudson, and there fell ill of fever. He had 
been entertained by friends and well-wishers 
all the way from Philadelphia to the camp on 
the Hudson, and the fatigue of these continual 
receptions, combined with chilly, wet weather, 
brought on malaria. He became very sick; 
Washington, greatly concerned, rode daily 
from his headquarters eight miles away to in- 
quire about the Frenchman's condition, and 
sent his own physician to attend him. This 
physician. Dr. John Cochran, Surgeon-Gen- 
eral of the Continental Army, devoted himself 
to the Marquis, and when he was able to travel 
again went on with him to Boston. Washing- 
ton wrote Lafayette, " I am persuaded, my 
dear marquis, that there is no need of fresh 
proofs to convince you either of my affection 
for you personally or of the high opinion I 
entertain of your military talents and merit.'* 



126 LAFAYETTE 

The Alliance, a Continental frigate of 
thirty-two guns, sailed from Boston for Brest 
on January 11, 1779. On board the ship in 
the harbor Lafayette added a postscript to a 
letter to Washington. " The sails are just 
going to be hoisted, my dear general," he said, 
" and I have but time to take my last leave 
of you. . . . Farewell. I hope your 
French friend will ever be dear to you ; I hope 
I shall soon see you again, and tell you myself 
with what emotion I now leave the coast you 
inhabit and with what affection and respect I 
am forever, my dear general, your respectful 
and sincere friend, Lafayette." 

The voyage of the Alliance was beset with 
obstacles and perils from the outset. There 
was so much difficulty in making up the crew 
that a number of English prisoners and de- 
serters in Boston were pressed into service as 
sailors. This makeshift crew came very near 
to proving disastrous for the Marquis, since 
there was an English law that offered to pay 
the full value of any American ship to the 
crew that would bring it into an English port, 
and there were considerably more English 
prisoners and deserters in the crew of the AUi- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 127 

ance than there were American and French 
sailors. 

The commander of the frigate was a French- 
man in the service of Congress, Captain Pierre 
Landais, of St. Malo, but the ship was under 
the orders of Lafayette. The Chevalier de 
Pontgibaud, who made the voyage, wrote: 
" The port of Boston was then frozen, and we 
were obliged to cut a passage for the ship 
through the ice. The wind was extremely vio- 
lent, though favorable. We put up our main- 
sail only and that alone took us along at the 
rate of ten knots an hour. . . . Off the 
Banks of Newfoundland we were assailed by 
a terrible tempest. It lasted so long and grew 
so much worse, that first inquietude, then 
alarm, and at last consternation, seized every- 
body on board. M. de La Fayette was invari- 
ably very ill at sea; he was down on the sick 
list." 

The storm continued for three of the 
twenty-three days of the voyage. The Alli- 
ance captured two British vessels, and every- 
thing promised well. But then came the great 
excitement; nothing less than rank mutiny. 
" While we were at dinner," wrote the Cheva- 



128 LAFAYETTE 

lier, " thinking no more of bad weather but of 
France, from which we were now only some 
five hundred miles distant, one of the crew en- 
tered and asked to speak to M. de La Fa^^ette. 
He took the Marquis on one side and told him 
a good deal in a few words, namely, that the 
English sailors had laid a plot to kill us, take 
possession of the vessel and turn her head for 
England. The time set for the rising was five 
o'clock when the English sailors came off their 
watch. Arms were hidden in the hammocks." 

The sailor who had given the warning had 
been taken for an Irishman by the mutineers, 
and had been offered the command of the 
frigate in case of success. A lookout was to 
give the signal " Sail ho! " and as the officers 
came on deck in a group they were to be shot 
down by cannon loaded with grape-shot and 
the ship sailed into an English port, where the 
mutineers would divide the profits. 

" There was not a moment to be lost," the 
Chevalier continued. " We numbered in all 
fourteen officers. We began by securing the 
man who had warned us. . . . Some of us 
then went to fetch the bravest and trustiest of 
our sailors . . . thirty of us went down 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 129 

between decks. The ringleader was seized and 
bound before he was awake. . . . The 
scoundrels were so taken by surprise that they 
made no resistance. They had noticed amongst 
the baggage of M. de La Fayette some very 
heavy cases which they supposed contained 
treasure." 

Thirty-three mutineers were captured and 
clapped into irons, and the rest of the crew 
sailed the frigate into the French harbor of 
Brest a week later. 

On shore the mutineers were kept in irons 
to await trial. Finally they were sent back to 
America on different vessels, but it is not re- 
ported what became of them there. 

Lafayette landed in triumph. The young 
fellow who had run away to sea in the Victory 
was returning a hero in a warship of the new 
American republic. He hurried at once to 
Versailles, then to Paris; and all along his 
route he was greeted by joyful, acclaiming 
crowds. He was amused, as well as delighted, 
when he compared this welcome with the way 
in which his family and friends had treated him 
when he left France to fight for American 
liberty. " I could not but recall the attitude 



130 LAFAYETTE 

of my country," he said, " of America, and my 
own situation, at the time when I went away, 
as I saw the port of Brest recognize and salute 
the flag that was now flying on my frigate." 

He saw his daughter Anastasje for the first 
time. The welcome he cared for the most was 
that from his wife, who had followed him in 
her thoughts all the time he had been in 
America, and had always sympathized with 
him and wished success for his plans. The 
Duke d'Ayen was delighted to see him, and 
listened with hearty approval to his son-in- 
law's story of what he had done in the young 
republic across the Atlantic. The court at 
Versailles, remembering that the Marquis had 
disobeyed the King's order, was obliged, for 
the sake of appearances, to show him no atten- 
tion at first. But friends came to see him at 
the Hotel de Noailles ; and one day the Queen, 
Marie Antoinette, his old playmate, happened 
to meet him as he was walking in the palace 
gardens and summoned him to her. He told 
her his adventures. Soon afterwards the King 
sent for him, and ordered him under arrest as 
a deserter, but with a twinkling eye declared 
that his prison should be his father-in-law's 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 131 

great house in Paris, and his jailer his wife 
Adrienne. 

Then the King forgave him for running 
away to America, congratulated him, and, with 
his ministers, consulted the Marquis about af- 
fairs in the United States. 

His reception in Paris was enough to have 
turned the head of any man less well balanced 
than Lafayette. Whenever he appeared on 
the street he was cheered by throngs. The 
actors in the theatres put special lines in their 
speeches to honor him; poems were written 
about him; and the young man of twenty-one 
became the lion of France. This was partly 
because he represented the connecting link in 
the alliance that now united the two countries, 
and that alliance was in great favor with the 
people. It was also because he stood for that 
ideal of " liberty " which was rapidly becoming 
the ruling thought of France. 

It would have been easy for him to rest on 
his laurels now, and feel that he had accom- 
plished all that was needed of him. But in- 
stead he used all this hero-worship to further 
his one aim — more help for the young republic 
across the sea. " In the midst of the whirl of 



182 LAFAYETTE 

excitement by which I was carried along," he 
wrote, " I never lost sight of our Revolution, 
the success of which still seemed to me to be 
extremely uncertain: accustomed to seeing 
great purposes accomplished with slender 
means, I used to say to myself that the cost of 
a single fete would have equipped the army of 
the United States, and in order to provide 
clothes for them I should gladly have stripped 
the palace of Versailles. ... I had the 
honor of being consulted by all the ministers, 
and, what was a great deal better, of being 
kissed by all the women." 

Maurepas and Vergennes were the two lead- 
ing statesmen of France at that time, and they 
made use of the Marquis to obtain first-hand 
information of men and affairs in America. 
They wanted to obtain his help quite as much 
as he wanted to win theirs. And the wise Ben- 
jamin Franklin, at the court of France, saw 
that his own tireless efforts in behalf of his 
country would be helped tremendously by this 
young enthusiast, and made the most of the 
golden opportunity. Several plans were con- 
cocted between them. One was to carry the 
war into England. The Alliance was kept at 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 133 

Brest, by Franklin's order, and placed under 
the command of Captain John Paul Jones, 
who also had three French vessels. According 
to the arrangements Lafayette was to go with 
Paul Jones, and the ships were to attack 
Liverpool, Lancaster, Bristol, Bath and 
Whitehaven. The force was to be made up of 
15,000 infantry, six pieces of artillery and 
some cavalry. Lafayette was to command the 
land forces and Paul Jones the fleet. Tribute 
was to be levied on the cities and towns 
and the proceeds were to be sent to the 
United States to help equip and clothe the 
army. 

While they were arranging this the French 
government suggested a more ambitious plan, 
which was an attack upon England with the 
combined forces of France and Spain. Details 
of this were being worked out when John Paul 
Jones put to sea in his ship, the Bon Homme 
Richard, and on September 22, 1779, fought 
his famous engagement with the Serapis. 

Meantime Lafayette was very busy. He 
was given a commission in the French army 
again, and made a colonel of the King's 
Dragoons. He spent much time in affairs of 



184 LAFAYETTE 

state at Versailles. Vergennes, the minister, 
was continually consulting hini. They dis- 
cussed how England could best be invaded, 
whether the King of Sweden could be per- 
suaded to lend America some of his ships of 
the line, how to induce other countries to lend 
money to the new republic. Edward Ban- 
croft was chosen to go to Ireland to see 
whether the people there were ready for re- 
bellion; but he reported that "the fruit was 
not ripe; " so the plan for enlisting Irish aid 
was temporarily abandoned. 

While he waited in France Lafayette wrote 
to the President of Congress by the hand of 
Monsieur de la Luzerne, who was going to 
Philadelphia, " The affairs of America I shall 
ever look upon as my first business whilst I 
am in Europe. ... I hope to leave this 
place before long, in order to play a more ac- 
tive part and come nearer the common enemy." 
And to Washington he wrote, " However 
happy I find myself in France, however well 
treated by my country and my king, I am so 
accustomed to being near to you, I am bound 
to you, to America, to my companions in arms 
by such an affection, that the moment when I 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 1^5 

sail for your country will be among the hap- 
piest and most wished for of my life." 

Later to Washington he sent word, " I have 
just received, my dear General, an express 
from court, with orders to repair immediately 
to Versailles. There I am to meet M. le 
Comte de Vaux, Lieutenant-General, who is 
appointed to command the troops intended for 
an expedition. In the army I shall be em- 
ployed in the capacity of aide-Marechal- 
general des logis, which is, in our service, a 
very important and agreeable place, so that I 
shall serve in the most pleasing manner, and 
shall be in a situation to know everything and 
to render services." 

The expedition he referred to was the long- 
talked of joint attempt of France and Spain 
against England. French troops were al- 
ready gathered at various of their home sea- 
ports along the English Channel when on June 
twenty-first Lafayette accompanied the Count 
de Vaux to Versailles, where the King gave 
them his instructions. After that Lafayette 
went to Havre, and stayed there until the ex- 
pedition was finally abandoned, because the 
fleet from the south under the Count d'Orvil- 



136 LAFAYETTE 

liers failed to appear. The fleet did arrive 
eventually, a hundred ships of the line and 
frigates, but it came too late ; it could not con- 
voy the French troops across the Channel be- 
cause by that time a powerful British squad- 
ron had been collected at Portsmouth. The 
failure of this plan must have been a gTcat 
disappointment to Lafayette and his friends, 
but he went on busily with other schemes. 

While he was waiting at Havre the Marquis 
was presented by Franklin's grandson with the 
sword that the Congress of the United States 
had ordered should be given to him. It was a 
beautiful sword; the handle made of gold, ex- 
quisitely wrought, and decorated, as well as 
the blade, with figures emblematic of Lafay- 
ette's career in America, with his coat of arms 
and his motto, '' Cur non? " 

By now the young Frenchman had come to 
the greatest of his plans, and had induced the 
government at Versailles to see that a French 
expedition to aid the Americans was both prac- 
ticable and necessary. He had shown the 
King's ministers that they were making a mis- 
take in limiting their efforts to a naval war in 
the West Indies. What they ought to do, he 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 187 

said, was to send a great army and navy to as- 
sist Washington. He wrote many letters to 
Vergennes about this, and soon both Ver- 
gennes and Maurepas were agreeing with him. 
There was some opposition from the court, for 
neither Louis XVI nor Marie Antoinette nor 
the royal princes who surrounded them cared 
to encourage the spirit of liberty too far; but 
the people, backed by a few powerful leaders, 
demanded that Lafayette's plan be carried 
out; and at last his and their persistency won 
the day. The government decided to send an 
expedition, commanded by Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral the Count de Rochambeau, with a fleet of 
warships and transports and six thousand sol- 
diers, to the aid of America. 

Lafayette was to go ahead to carry the wel- 
come news to Washington and Congress, and 
to let them know that there would be no more 
of the jealousies and disputes that had hin- 
dered the success of the French and Americans 
in the field before. He had arranged that the 
French troops should be under Washington's 
orders, that they should accept the leadership 
of the American officers on the latter's own 
ground, and that officers of the United States 



188 LAFAYETTE 

should be recognized as having equal rank with 
those of France. This harmony that Lafay- 
ette secured had a great deal to do with the 
final successful outcome of the American Rev- 
olution. 

Rochambeau's appointment was announced 
on the ninth of March, 1780. On March 
eleventh Lafayette went on board the frigate 
Hermione at the Isle d'Aix. Captain La- 
touche, in command, said of h's passenger, " I 
consider it a favor that an opportunity has 
been given me to prove the high esteem in 
which I hold him." Sailing from Rochelle on 
March fourteenth, Lafayette was almost six 
weeks at sea, and had plenty of time to study 
the instructions that had been given him by 
the French government. 

The Hermione, flying the French flag, ar- 
rived in Boston harbor on April 28, 1780. 
Word that she had been sighted had spread 
through the city, and the wharves were lined 
with people. When Lafayette landed a great 
throng gave him a rousing welcome, and the 
people of Boston followed him, cheering, 
through the streets to the house of Governor 
John Hancock on Beacon Hill. That sturdy 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 139 

old patriot and signer of the Declaration of 
Independence was not a whit behind his fel- 
low-citizens in his enthusiastic greeting to this 
friend of the Republic. 

At once Lafayette sent off a letter to Wash- 
ington, who then had his headquarters at 
Morristown. Washington, to whom the news 
of aid from France was like the coming of 
spring after a long, weary winter, replied with 
the greatest delight. " I most sincerely con- 
gratulate you," he wrote, " upon your safe ar- 
rival in America, and shall embrace you with 
all the warmth of an affectionate friend, when 
you come to headquarters, where a bed is pre- 
pared for you." 

Lafayette reached Morristown on the tenth 
of May, and the two friends discussed the sit- 
uation. The young Frenchman told of the 
coming of Rochambeau with a fleet and an 
army, and the American commander's eyes 
shone with joy. He himself could only tell of 
the hardships his soldiers had boi-ne during the 
winter, the difficulty of securing recruits, and 
the general discouragement of the country. 
But all was changed now. Greatly cheered, 
Washington sent Lafayette to Philadelphia to 



140 LAFAYETTE 

make his report to Congress, and set himself 
to the work of rousing his army and the people 
to welcome the men from France. 

On May sixteenth Lafayette made his ap- 
pearance before Congress in Philadelphia, and 
received official thanks for the services he had 
lately rendered in Europe. According to a 
plan made with Washington, he did not tell 
Congress anything definite about the coming 
of General Rochambeau and the fleet under 
Admiral de Terney. But he did speak about 
the need of equipping the American amiy if it 
was to be made into an efficient fighting force. 
He described how at Morristown he had found 
Washington's troops half -fed and half-clothed, 
with only four thousand out of six thousand 
soldiers fit for duty. And he said to the Presi- 
dent of Congress, " Though I have been di- 
rected to furnish the French court and the 
French generals with early and minute intelli- 
gence, I confess that pride has stopped my 
pen and, notwithstanding past promises, I 
have avoided entering into any details till our 
army is put in a better and more decent situa- 
tion." 

Congress and the country were roused, and 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 141 

before the French fleet arrived the American 
army was in much better condition. 

Lafayette kept the details of the French ex- 
pedition secret, but various rumors concerning 
it quickly got abroad. It was suspected later 
that General Benedict Arnold, whom Wash- 
ington implicitly trusted, had tried to betray 
the plans to the enemy. At any event. Sir 
Henry Clinton received information that 
Canada was to be attacked by Rochambeau. 
Rochambeau arrived with his army at Newport, 
Rhode Island, on Admiral de Terney's ships, 
on July 10, 1780, and at once sent word to 
Washington, declaring, as his government had 
instructed him, " We are now, sir, under your 
command." 

On July twenty-fifth Lafayette welcomed 
the French commanders on behalf of General 
Washington. There was a great deal of ex- 
citement, both on the fleet and on shore, owing 
to rumors of an intended British attack at 
Newport. The British Admiral Graves had 
indeed joined his ships to those of Admiral 
Arbuthnot, and the combined fleet was cruis- 
ing just outside Narragansett Bay. More- 
over Sir Henry Clinton had planned to arrive 



142 LAFAYETTE 

with an army; but at the last moment he comi- 
termanded his orders and turned back. So the 
excitement subsided. But while there was 
danger at Newport Lafayette remained there. 
Only when it was definitely known that Clin- 
ton was not coming did he return to the Amer- 
ican headquarters, which had been moved to 
Peekskill. 

When he reached camp he learned that 
Washington had given him the command of a 
corps of light infantry, made up of six battal- 
ions, in two brigades, under General Hand and 
General Poor. He had plenty to do in organ- 
izing this " flying army," as he called it; but 
he also found time to write criticisms of what 
he considered bad management of affairs at 
Newport. These criticisms came to the notice 
of Rochambeau, and so irritated him that he 
was on the point of quarreling with Lafayette. 
But fortunately wiser counsels prevailed, and 
the dispute was smoothed over. Afterwards 
the two became warm friends, and each had 
the highest admiration for the other's military 
judgment. 

Rochambeau had his troubles to contend 
with. The second division of his fleet was still 




"■■^it- 



The Count de Rochambeau 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 148 

in French waters, blockaded by thirty British 
shii)s at Brest. For the present he could do 
little. Washington held a council of war on 
September sixth, and it was decided not to 
attempt an attack on New York until Ro- 
chambeau's second division arrived. On the 
twentieth of September Washington, with 
Lafayette and General Knox, met Rocham- 
beau and Admiral de Terney at Hartford, and 
Lafayette had the oj)portunity he had long 
looked forward to of presenting his American 
hero to his fellow-countrymen from France. 
Rochambeau's aide-de-camp. Count Jean Axel 
de Fersen, described this meeting m a letter to 
his father. " During our stay in Hartford," 
he wrote, " the two Generals and the Admiral 
were closeted together all day ; the Marquis de 
La Fayette assisted as interpreter, as General 
Washington does not speak French nor un- 
derstand it. They separated quite charmed 
with one another, at least they said so." 

It was during this meeting that one of La- 
fayette's pet schemes was discussed and prac- 
tically decided on, the invasion of Canada by 
the joint American and French armies. The 
details of this invasion were to be entrusted to 



144 LAFAYETTE 

General Benedict Arnold, who was to be put 
in command of the forces. 

But at the very moment when Washington 
and Rochambeau were making their plans, 
events were taking place elsewhere which were 
not only to frustrate this scheme but to put 
the whole American cause in the greatest 
jeopardy. 



VIII 

A NARROW ESCAPE 

On the very night when Washington was 
taking leave of Roehambeau and De Terney at 
the hospitable house of Colonel Wadsworth in 
Hartford a mysterious business was going for- 
ward on the Hudson River. Out from a 
wooded point on the western shore of the 
stream, which widens below King's Ferry, a 
small boat, the oars muffled with sheepskin to 
prevent any sound, stole about midnight. Two 
men were rowing, a third sat silent in the stern. 
The latter was a lawyer named Joshua Hett 
Smith, and the boat and the oarsmen were un- 
der his command. 

With the tide favoring them, the boat was 
not long in reaching the sloop-of-war Vulture, 
which stood out big and black against the clear, 
starlit sky. A sentry on the ship gave a chal- 
lenge, which was quickly answered, and the 
rowboat was ordered to come alongside. 
Joshua Smith climbed up a ladder and boarded 
the British sloop. He went into the cabin and 



146 LAFAYETTE 

spoke to several officers, and then, his visit be- 
ing a short one, he returned to the deck and so 
over the side to his little craft again. 

He brought a passenger with him, however ; 
a young man, handsome and slender, whose 
long blue cloak, fastened tight, concealed the 
bright scarlet uniform of a British officer. As 
silently as before the boat was rowed back to 
the shore, and landed Joshua Smith and his 
companion, who was Major John Andre, Ad- 
jutant-General in the British Army, and one 
of Clinton's favorite officers. 

The two men walked up from the beach into 
a thicket at Long Clove, below Haverstraw, 
and there in the woods they met another 
cloaked figure. Greetings were exchanged; 
and then Joshua Smith, having brought the 
two together, left them and went back to his 
boat. 

The two cloaked men had much to say to 
each other, and what they said was of vital con- 
cern to the cause of American freedom. For 
it happened that the man who had been hiding 
in the woods was none other than Major-Gen- 
eral Benedict Arnold, one of Washington's 
most trusted commanders. 



FOR YOUNG AiNlERICANS 147 

Arnold was a man who had long cherished a 
grievance, a very ambitious man who felt that 
he had never received the advancement that his 
talents deserved. In Philadelphia he had been 
spoiled by admiration, and had married Mar- 
garet Shippen, a great beauty, and daughter 
of a very rich and important Tory family. He 
had a fine house on the Schuylkill, and spent 
his wife's money with lordly lavishness, got 
into debt, quarreled with his superior officers, 
and finally was brought up before a Committee 
of Congress and a court-martial. He was ac- 
quitted, but the trial made him morose and 
vengeful. He determined to get even with the 
leaders of the American cause, and managed 
by intrigue to obtain command of the post at 
West Point on the Hudson. It was his plan 
to surrender the Hudson Valley to the British 
General Clinton and so divide the Union. 
Burgoyne had tried to do this with his army 
and had failed; now Benedict Arnold saw his 
chance to do it by treachery. 

This was what he discussed with Major An- 
dre in the woods at Long Clove on the night of 
September twenty-first. The}'- talked for a 
very long time, so long in fact that Joshua 



148 LAFAYETTE 

Smith, waiting down on the beach, began to 
grow uneasy. At last Smith returned to the 
woods and whispered a warning to the con- 
spirators that dawn had ahnost come. Arnold 
and Andre left the thicket, but either because 
they thought there was too much risk of detec- 
tion if the British officer should attempt to row 
out to the Vulture again, or because they had 
not 3^et finished their discussion, they decided 
to go to Smith's house and await a later chance 
to escape. In doing this Andre disobeyed his 
instructions, with, as it turned out, disastrous 
results for himself. 

Their way led through a small village, and 
an American sentry challenged the three night 
prowlers. Arnold gave a satisfactory answer, 
and they were allowed to pass. But Andre 
realized his danger and went on in growing 
alarm until they reached Smith's stone dwell- 
ing-house on the crest of a hill. 

They entered the house about daybreak, and 
hardly were they inside when they heard the 
sound of firing on the Hudson. Looking from 
a window they saw the Vulture, which was to 
have waited for Andre, being driven from her 
place in the river by cannon-fire from the shore. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 14d 

The young Britisher, who was still in his twen- 
ties, and to whom the role of a spy was entirely 
unfamiliar, turned in consternation to the older 
American officer. Arnold encouraged him, as- 
sured him there was no risk; and for several 
hours more discussed the surrender of his post 
to his country's enemies. 

At last all arrangements were made, every 
detail decided as to how the British were to at- 
tack West Point and how Arnold was to give 
it up. In return for his treachery Arnold was 
to receive a large sum of money and a high 
commission in the English army. He handed 
Andre some papers in his own handwriting 
that had to do with the bargain. Then he pro- 
vided the Englishman with passes, gave him to 
understand that he would be rowed out to the 
Vulture in safety that evening, and set off for 
his own headquarters. 

Andre stayed at Smith's house most of the 
day, growing more and more uneasy as he 
thought of the possibility that he might be 
caught within the American lines as a spy. 
His fears were lessened, somewhat, however, 
when, several hours after Arnold had left him, 
he saw the Vulture sailing back up the Hudson 



150 LAFAYETTE 

and coming to anchor not far from her old po- 
sition. Eagerly he waited for the protection 
of night, when he might in safety be rowed out 
to the sloop. But to his horror he found, when 
he spoke to Smith, that the latter had no inten- 
tion of carrying out that part of the plan. 
Smith would not make another venture to the 
Vulture, He pointed out the dangers and of- 
fered all kinds of excuses, but remained per- 
fectly firm. It was in vain that the young En- 
glishman entreated him and demanded that he 
do as General Arnold had ordered. After 
much heated talk Andre was compelled to 
agree to make the attempt to get back to the 
British lines by land. 

Twilight had come when the two men set out 
on what was a much more dangerous expedi- 
tion than the trip by boat would have been. 
Andre had put on a disguise and had hidden 
the papers that General Arnold had given him 
in his boots. This made his situation many 
times more perilous than it had been before. 
If he had been captured wearing his own uni- 
form and without these papers he would prob- 
ably only have been held as a regular prisoner 
of war; but in disguise and carrying these mes- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 151 

sages his capture would necessarily mean his 
death as a spy. He knew the risk he ran, but 
felt that he had no choice. 

Smith had provided good mounts. Andre 
had a big brown horse, prominently branded 
with the initials " U. S. A." By a circling, 
hilly road they went up the shore of the Hud- 
son to King's Ferry, no one attempting to stop 
them. The Englishman breathed more freely 
when he found that the boat that crossed the 
river was ready to start as soon as they were 
aboard. They reached the eastern side, and 
set off with greater confidence in the direction 
of the outposts of the British army above New 
York. 

Their road led through a wild and lonely 
country. The September night came soon, 
and they were shut in by the looming heights 
of the hills. Smith tried to talk, but Andre 
rode mostly in silence. For a night and a day 
he had lived in constant fear and suspense, and 
now that the second night had come he appre- 
ciated fully what would happen if he were 
caught. 

Suddenly out of the dark came the challenge 
of a sentry. They had ridden unawares into 



152 LAFAYETTE 

an American patrol. The riders showed the 
passes that Benedict Arnold had given them. 
The captain of the patrol made them go with 
him to his quarters, where he examined the 
passes carefully and the two travelers as well. 

Smith made up a likely story to explain their 
riding so late at night toward the enemy's lines. 
The captain still seemed doubtful ; and possibly 
to quiet his fears they arranged to stop and 
spend the rest of the night at a house near by. 
Andre went to bed with his clothes on, and 
long before dawn he was up again and urging 
Smith to ride on. 

The day was foggy and cold. As they stole 
out of the house they found no one to oppose 
them. Regaining their horses, they mounted 
and quickly struck into the road. Through 
the murky dawn they galloped, but they had 
not gone far when they came to a small tavern, 
and here another picket stepped out and chal- 
lenged them. 

The passes were produced and taken into the 
tavern to be scrutinized by lamplight. The 
two horsemen waited a long time, apprehensive 
of some mischance. At last a shadowy figm-e 
came out from the inn and told them that Gen- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 158 

eral Arnold's passes had been found correct 
and that they might continue their journey. 
Andre sighed with relief. Apparently his for- 
tunate star was safeguarding his steps. 

Next came a long, slow climb up a stony 
hill, and when they reached the top the daylight 
was breaking through the mists of dawn. The 
light was cheerful, the damp and cold were 
leaving, and as they rode down into a little 
valley Andre began to talk hopefully to Smith 
of the end of their adventure. 

But in the midst of his talk he faltered and 
his smile fled. A horseman was coming to- 
ward them, and the Englishman recognized in 
him an American officer who had been a pris- 
oner of the British in New York and whom 
Andre had met there. The chances seemed a 
hundred to one that the American would re- 
member the Englishman. The American 
stared hard as he came up with the two riders 
going in the opposite direction. But that stare 
was all. Andre's fortune still held. The 
American rode past without asking any ques- 
tions. 

A little farther and the two came to a fork 
in the highroad. Near by was an old house, 



154 LAFAYETTE 

and as the travelers were veiy hungry by now 
they decided to ask for breakfast. 

They rode around the house, and dismount- 
ing, ate the food the farmer's wife brought 
them on the back steps, from where they could 
keep an eye in each direction and not be seen 
themselves. And when they had finished their 
breakfast Smith bluntly told his companion 
that he had now come as near to the British 
lines as he intended to go, and that Andre 
must go on alone. 

More protests and arguments followed. It 
had been agreed that Smith should see the En- 
glish officer clear to the British outposts, and 
here he was deserting him, with those outposts 
fifteen miles off. But again Andre's protests 
were useless. Smith would not go on. And 
so, under the circumstances, there was nothing 
left for Andre to do but continue by himself. 

So the unfortunate young officer rode on, 
while Smith turned back to safety. Andre 
was now entering a sort of No Man's Land, or 
country lying between the two armies, not 
really in the possession of either, a strip of ter- 
ritory where sometimes American, and some- 
times British, troopers were to be found scout- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 155 

ing. This country was altogether strange to 
him, and now, without the ready tongoie of 
Smith to help him allay suspicion, he feared to 
ask questions. The fog settled again in the 
river valley and presently turned to a steady 
rain. Andre began to wonder whether he had 
taken the wrong turn at one of the forks. In 
growing confusion he tried one road, then 
turned back and tried another. At last he 
found himself obliged to ask his way, although 
the people he spoke to showed their suspicion 
of this cloaked rider who was so ignorant of his 
whereabouts. 

However, people answered his questions, 
and by the middle of the morning he was has- 
tening along the post-road in the neighborhood 
of Tarry town. The British lines were now so 
near that he was expecting almost any turn in 
the road to reveal their welcome outposts. He 
came to a ravine, where a plank bridge crossed 
a stream, and was galloping over, the planks 
clattering under his horse's hoofs, when sud- 
denly three men stepped out from the bushes to 
one side, and he found the muzzle of a musket 
pointed at his head. 

And now Andre at last, after having passed 



156 LAFAYETTE 

safely through so many dangers, made a fatal 
mistake. He did not know whether the three 
men were American or British scouts, — they 
wore no uniforms; — but if he had promptly 
shown them General Arnold's passes he would 
in all likelihood have been safe in either case. 
If Americans, the passes would probably have 
satisfied them; if British, they would have 
taken him to their commander and Andre 
could have revealed his identity. But some- 
thing about the appearance of the three made 
him believe that they were Tory scouts, and 
he boldly told them that he was an English 
officer. 

He had guessed wrong. The three were 
American militiamen, young fellows named 
John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac 
Van Wart. They told him what they were. 
In dismay he hurriedly brought out General 
Arnold's passes. The militiamen paid no at- 
tention to his explanations, but made him dis- 
mount and searched him from head to toe. 
The papers he had hidden were discovered in 
his boots. Paulding, looking at these, declared, 
" The man is a spy! " 

Andre offered them a thousand pounds to 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 157 

set him free. His captors were not to be 
bought. They took him immediately to Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Jameson at the nearest Ameri- 
can post. 

Jameson read the papers of General Arnold 
that had been concealed in Andre's boots, but 
could not believe that Arnold was a traitor. 
He sent Andre with a letter and the papers to- 
ward West Point, but at the same time sent a 
letter to General Arnold telling him of Andre's 
capture. Major Benjamin Tallmadge, a much 
shrewder man, brought Andre back, closely 
guarded. The letter to Arnold, however, went 
on its way, and presently reached the traitor. 

A courier, with a note from Jameson, set off 
at once over the road to Hartford to notify 
Washington. At the same time the American 
commander-in-chief, with his escort, was riding 
away from Hartford by another route. On 
the morning of September twenty-fourth they 
came down the eastern shore of the Hudson to- 
ward Benedict Arnold's headquarters at the 
Robinson house, which stood across the river 
from West Point. Washington was coming 
back several days earlier than he had expected, 
and had sent a message on ahead telling Ar- 



158 LAFAYETTE 

nold that he would breakfast with him that 
morning. 

The commander-in-chief, however, absorbed 
in his own plans, turned his horse from the 
road that led to the Robinson house into a lane 
that ran down to the Hudson. Lafayette re- 
minded him that Mrs. Arnold was expecting 
them to breakfast. Washington laughed. 
"Ah, Marquis," he said, " you young men are 
all in love with Mrs. Arnold. I see you are 
eager to be with her as soon as possible. Go 
and breakfast with her, and tell her not to wait 
for me. I must ride down and examine the 
redoubts on this side of the river, but will be 
with her shortly." 

Lafayette and Knox, however, preferred to 
ride on with the General, and sent their apolo- 
gies to Mrs. Arnold by two aides. Colonel 
Hamilton and Major McHenry. 

The two aides soon reached the Robinson 
house and were welcomed by the hostess. 
Young and fond of society, Mrs. Arnold was 
always glad to have officers at her table. 
Breakfast proceeded gaily. Even Arnold him- 
self seemed entirely at his ease. Yet it must 
have been a trying experience for him. He 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 159 

supposed that of course Andre had by this 
time reached the British lines and he had him- 
self already prepared his fortifications for sur- 
render to the enemy; but this unexpectedly 
early return of Washington might still defeat 
all his plans. 

They Avere at the breakfast-table when a 
messenger galloped up to the door with a letter 
for Arnold. He opened it at once, — it was 
from Jameson, — and read that Andre had 
been captured, and that the secret papers 
found upon him had been sent to Washington. 
Arnold rose from the table at once, saying that 
he had received news that would take him im- 
mediately to West Point, and beckoned his 
wife to follow him to her room. There he told 
her that he was a ruined man and must fly for 
his life. Mrs. Arnold, horrified at her hus- 
band's confession, fell fainting on the floor. 

There came a knock at the door; a servant 
said that a messenger had arrived to announce 
the coming of General Washington. Arnold 
was in a panic. Leaving his wife, he ran from 
the house, mounted the messenger's horse, and 
dashed down to the river through a ravine. 
His barge was waiting, he ordered the rowers 



160 LAFAYETTE 

aboard, and pushed out into the river. With 
pistol in hand, he made his men row down the 
Hudson to his only refuge now, the British 
sloop Vulture. 

Almost immediately after Arnold's hurried 
departure Washington, Lafayette and Knox 
reached the Robinson house. They were told 
that General Arnold had been called to West 
Point, and that Mrs. Arnold was unwell. The 
commander-in-chief supposed that Arnold had 
gone to West Point to prepare for his recep- 
tion, as he intended to visit the fortifications, 
and so, having eaten a hasty breakfast, crossed 
the river with his companions. 

He was somewhat puzzled, however, when 
no salute was fired as he approached the for- 
tress. But immediately Colonel Lamb, the of- 
ficer in command, came hurrying down to the 
landing, full of apologies, saying that he had 
received no word of General Washington's 
visit. 

" Is not General Arnold here? " Washing- 
ton inquired. 

" No, sir," said Lamb. " He has not been 
here for two days, nor have I heard from him 
in that time." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 161 

Surprised, but still unconscious of anything 
wrong, the commander and his escort spent the 
morning inspecting the works. He was some- 
what disturbed at the unprepared condition in 
which he found the fortifications, but it never 
occurred to him to suspect his trusted General 
Arnold of having intentionally weakened the 
place. 

About noon they recrossed the Hudson and 
rode back to the Robinson house. Colonel 
Hamilton met them, spoke a few low words to 
the commander, and handed him the secret 
papers that had been found on Andre. At 
once the whole plot was clear. Washington 
turned to Lafayette and Knox, and told them 
the news, saying how much he had always 
trusted General Arnold, and adding, " Whom 
can we trust now? " 

Lafayette wrote later to a friend, " Judge 
of our astonishment when, upon our return, we 
were informed that the captured spy was 
Major Andre, the adjutant-general of the 
English army, and that among the papers 
found upon him was a copy of a very impor- 
tant council of war, a statement of the strength 
of the garrison and of the works, and certain 



162 LAFAYETTE 

observations upon the methods of attack and 
defense, all in General Arnold's handwriting." 

Washington lost no time; the traitor's plot 
had failed, but West Point was now vulner- 
able. He gave orders right and left. Ham- 
ilton was sent at breakneck sj)eed down to Ver- 
planck's Point, but found that Arnold had 
reached the Vulture, and was now out of reach. 

Couriers dashed through the hills, carrying 
the commander's orders to troops that Arnold 
had scattered to return to the fortress at once, 
and directing General Greene to send a whole 
division of the main army. Fortunate it was 
that Washington had arrived at this particular 
place at this particular moment; otherwise no 
one can tell what harm might have befallen the 
American cause. 

No one but Lafayette and Knox knew the 
real reason for the commander's massing of 
forces, although others soon suspected it. To- 
ward evening Washington, calm as ever, 
joined his officers at the Robinson house for 
dinner. " Come, gentlemen," he said, " since 
Mrs. Arnold is indisposed and the General is 
absent, let us sit down without ceremony." 

Later in the evening, with two of his aides, 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 168 

he went to see Mrs. Arnold and tried to com- 
fort her. Everyone felt the distress of her 
situation keenly. In his letter Lafayette 
wrote, " The unhappy Mrs. Arnold did not 
know a word of this conspiracy. Her husband 
told her before going away that he was flying, 
never to come back, and he left her lying un- 
conscious. . . . The horror with which 
her husband's conduct has inspired her, and a 
thousand other feelings, make her the most un- 
happy of women." 

Night came, with torrents of rain. But un- 
der Washington's orders sentries were watch- 
ing every road and pass, guards were patrol- 
ling the Hudson in small boats, troops were 
returning to West Point, and Anthony Wayne 
was marching in haste with a detachment from 
the main army through the defiles of the moun- 
tains. 

The enemy had not seized their chance. An- 
other day and West Point would be as impreg- 
nable as ever. 

Washington stayed at the Robinson house a 
day or two longer, until all danger of an attack 
by Clinton had passed. He saw Mrs. Arnold, 
with her baby and her maid, started back to her 



164 LAFAYETTE 

home in Philadelphia in her own carriage, un- 
der a sufficient escort. Lafayette expressed 
the opinion of all when he wrote to the Chev- 
alier de la Luzerne, " General Washington 
and everyone else sympathize warmly with this 
estimable woman whose face and whose youth- 
fulness make her so interesting. She is going 
to Philadelphia, and I implore you, when you 
return, to use your influence in her favor. 
. . . Your influence and your opinion, em- 
phatically expressed, may prevent her from 
being visited with a vengeance which she does 
not deserve. General Washington will pro- 
tect her also. As for myself, you know that I 
have always been fond of her, and at this mo- 
ment she interests me intensely. We are cer- 
tain that she knew nothing of the plot." 

When Mrs. Arnold had left, Washington 
with his officers set out to join the main army. 
They crossed the Hudson at King's Ferry, and 
rode down the west shore to a small Dutch town 
called Tappan. Here he had directed General 
Greene to collect his forces, and here on the 
evening of September twenty-eighth the com- 
mander-in-chief was joyfully welcomed by his 
soldiers. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 165 

Washington took up his headquarters in a 
tiny, one-story cottage. Major Andre, under 
a strong guard, was lodged in the stone tavern. 
And immediately the American commander 
appointed a military, court, of which Greene, 
Knox, Lafayette, and Von Steuben were mem- 
bers, to try the young Englishman. 

The court-martial was held in the village 
church. Andre was given a fair trial. He 
had a most attractive personality and his youth 
and high character made a strong appeal to his 
judges. Moreover, in a way it seemed as 
though Benedict Arnold had forced Andre 
into his role of a spy, and had left the less 
guilty man to pay the penalty of his treason, 
while he himself went free. But the judges 
had to do their duty, and that duty was plain. 
There was no doubt of Andre's guilt as a spy, 
and the court convicted him and sentenced him 
to be hung. 

Lafayette was a generous judge. A letter 
to Madame Lafayette, written after Andre's 
death, shows that the Frenchman felt the 
charm of the unfortunate young English of- 
ficer, as did everyone else who knew him. " He 
was a very interesting man," wrote Lafayette ; 



166 LAFAYETTE 

" he conducted himself in a manner so frank, 
so noble, and so delicate that I cannot help 
feeling for him an infinite pity/* 

Benedict Arnold meantime had donned the 
uniform of a British general and was doing his 
best to defeat his former comrades. But he 
was not trusted by his new friends, and two 
English colonels who were supposed to be un- 
der his orders were secretly given the duty of 
keeping an eye on him. It was in Virginia 
that he and Lafayette were to meet and cross 
swords the next year. 



IX 

FIGHTING THROUGH THE SOUTH 

The treason of Benedict Arnold prevented 
the invasion of Canada by an American army, 
and Lafayette saw no active service for some 
time. He did indeed outline a plan for a bold 
attack upon General Clinton on Manhattan 
Island, but Washington considered that the 
risk was entirely too great. So the young 
Frenchman spent the autumn in camp on the 
Hudson and in New Jersey, drilling his men 
preparatory to the next year's campaign. 

He took great pride in his soldiers, who 
formed a special corps of light infantry, picked 
from all branches of the service. " Its posi- 
tion is always that of advance-guard," he wrote 
Adrienne. " It is independent of the main 
army, and it is far too fine for our present pa- 
cific situation.'* And apparently his troop 
was much better fitted out than the rest of the 
army, for Lafayette sent to France for such 
luxuries as sabres and banners and plumes for 
his men. The Chevalier de Chastellux visited 
the camp at Totohaw, or Second River, in New 



168 LAFAYETTE 

Jersey, seven miles from Washington's head- 
quarters at Tappan, and said that Lafayette's 
infantry " were better clothed than the rest of 
the army — the uniforms were smart and mili- 
tary, and each soldier wore a helmet made of 
hard leather, with a crest of horsehair." He 
added, " The officers are armed with espon- 
toons, or rather with half -pikes, and the sub- 
alterns with fusils ; but both are provided with 
short and light sabres, brought from France, 
and made a present of to them by M. de Lafay- 
ette." Hospitality reigned there also, for 
when the Chevalier returned to Totohaw from 
a visit to General Washington at Tappan, he 
said, " We arrived wet at Marquis de Lafay- 
ette's quarters, where I warmed myself with 
pleasure, partaking, from time to time, of a 
large bowl of grog, which is stationary on his 
table and is presented to every officer who 
enters." 

Lafayette entertained many of his country- 
men at camp, and later joined De Chastellux 
in Philadelphia. A number of French officers 
had gathered there, and they, used to the gaye- 
ties of the most brilliant court in Europe, 
added much to the amusements of the Ameri- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 169 

can capital. Everyone liked the French 
guests, and the foreign officers, on their part, 
liked and admired their new allies. Some- 
times the self-denying seriousness of the Amer- 
icans, which was an element of their national 
strength, surprised and amused the gayer 
Frenchmen. De Chastellux told a story about 
Philadelphia in his volume of " Travels." He 
said that at balls in Philadelphia it was the 
custom to have a Continental officer act as the 
master of ceremonies, and that at one party he 
attended that position was held by a Colonel 
Mitchell, who showed the same devotion to 
duty in the ballroom that he showed on the 
field of battle. This Colonel saw a young girl 
so busily talking that she could pay little atten- 
tion to the figures of the quadrille, so he 
marched up to her and said to her severely, 
" Take care what you are doing; do you sup- 
pose you are there for your pleasure? " 

Naturally the Chevalier de Chastellux and 
his friends, fresh from the world of Marie An- 
toinette, where pleasure was always the first 
aim, had many a laugh at the people of this 
new world. But with the laugh there always 
went respect and admiration. 



170 LAFAYETTE 

But Lafayette by no means devoted himself 
to pleasure. He wrote every month to his 
powerful friend at the French court, Ver- 
gennes, urging speedy aid for the Republic. 
When the American Colonel Laurens set out 
on an important mission to Paris Lafayette 
gave him expert advice on the court customs 
and prejudices. Also he wrote to leading men 
in the different states of the Union, and one of 
his friends said that " private letters from him 
have frequently produced more effect upon 
some states than the strongest exhortations of 
Congress." 

By Colonel Laurens he sent a long letter to 
his wife. Another child had been born to the 
Marquis and Adrienne, a son, who was given 
the name of George Washington. " Embrace 
our children," wrote Lafayette, " thousands of 
times for me. Although a vagabond, their fa- 
ther is none the less tender, less constantly 
thoughtful of them, less happy to hear from 
them. My heart perceives, as in a delicious 
perspective, the moment when my dear children 
will be presented to me by you, and when we 
can kiss and caress them together. Do you 
think that Anastasie will recognize me?" 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 171 

And, as he could never write without thinking 
of the brave men in his army, he added, " Only 
citizens could support the nakedness, the hun- 
ger, the labors, and the absolute lack of pay 
which constitute the conditions of our soldiers, 
the most enduring and the most patient, I be- 
lieve, of any in the world." 

On January 11, 1781, Lafayette visited 
Washington at his headquarters, and the two 
reviewed the situation. The field of war had 
now swung from the north to the south, and 
there it appeared to be going in favor of the 
British. The original British plan of seizing 
and holding the larger cities had failed. After 
three years they held New York and Newport, 
and very little more. Now they had aban- 
doned Newport. King George was disgusted, 
but was as determined as ever to suppress 
the Revolution. So the British government 
had decided to change its plans and turn 
its attack to Georgia, the Carolinas and Vir- 
ginia. 

This change in the British plan had worked 
out well for them. Sir Henry Clinton had 
sent one force by water and one by land against 
Georgia. The French fleet under the Count 



172 LAFAYETTE 

d'Estaing had sailed up from the West Indies 
to meet the British, but had had no success, 
and the French commander, whom Washing- 
ton was hourly expecting to arrive off Sandy 
Hook, abruptly ordered his fleet to return 
across the Atlantic to France. Then Clinton 
caught the American General Lincoln in 
Charleston, and Lincoln surrendered five thou- 
sand men. North and South Carolina ap- 
peared about to be overrun by the enemy. 
Washington detached the picked troops of 
Maryland and Delaware from his army and 
sent them south under the Baron de Kalb. 
But fresh disasters followed ; the British Gen- 
eral Cornwallis defeated the Americans at the 
battle of Camden, in South Carolina, and La- 
fayette's old companion, De Kalb, fell at the 
head of his men. 

Washington next sent General Greene to 
take command of what was left of the army in 
the South. Greene, who had been the com- 
mander-in-chief's right arm in every campaign, 
found the forces in great disorder. After he 
had joined his army he wrote, "I am not with- 
out great apprehension of its entire dissolution. 
. . . Nothing can be more wretched and 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 173 

distressing than the condition of the troops, 
starving with cold and hunger; without tents 
and without camp equipage. ... A tat- 
tered remnant of some garment clumsily stuck 
together with the thorns of the locust tree 
forms the sole covering of hundreds." 

Cornwallis was now near Winnsborough, in 
the northern part of South Carolina, and 
Greene was near Charlotte, in the lower part 
of North Carolina. The British were much 
superior in force, but notwithstanding that. 
General Greene divided his small army in two, 
and marched them at a wide distance from each 
other, one to the east and the other to the west 
of the enemy at Winnsborough. Cornwallis 
decided that he must attack one of these forces, 
and chose to strike first at the Americans on his 
left. He sent General Tarleton with one 
thousand men against the eight hundred under 
General Morgan, a huge Welshman who had 
started the Revolution as a wagoner and had 
become one of the ablest American command- 
ers of light troops. On January seventeenth 
the two forces met at a place called the Cow- 
pens, near the borderline between the two 
Carolinas. The Americans won, Tarleton's 



174, LAFAYETTE 

force being almost annihilated at the Battle of 
the Cowpens. 

This was cheering news to Washington ; but 
even this victory could hardly allay his anxiety 
over Greene's small and divided army. Greene, 
however, proceeded to justify his commander's 
confidence in him, and skilfully handled his 
troops. He kept on southward. He said that 
he would " fight, get beaten and fight again." 
He forced the British before him, and finally 
drove them to retire to their fortifications at 
Charleston. 

By now there was another matter that caused 
Washington great concern. General Clinton, 
in New York, had sent a strong detachment to 
Virginia to raid and plunder that State. This 
expedition was under the command of Bene- 
dict Arnold, now a brigadier-general in the 
English army. The thought of this traitor 
leading an army to lay waste Virginia caused 
the greatest resentment throughout the United 
States. 

Arnold was in Virginia with sixteen hundred 
British regulars, had burned Richmond, and 
was camped at Portsmouth. Washington's 
answer to this threat was to send a French 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 175 

naval force to Chesapeake Bay and a detach- 
ment from his main army overland to Virginia. 
The army was to rout out Arnold from his 
camp, the ships to cut off his escape by sea. 
The French admiral ordered a ship-of-the-line 
and two frigates to the Chesapeake, and the 
commander-in-chief placed twelve hundred 
light infantry under Lafayette's command. 
Washington wrote to Lafayette, " You are to 
do no act whatever with Arnold that directly 
or by implication may screen him from the 
punishment due to his treason and desertion, 
which, if he should fall into your hands, you 
will execute in the most summary way." 

Lafayette felt that this new command, which 
was of the greatest importance, showed what 
confidence and trust Washington had in his 
military ability. The Marquis understood the 
situation. He must act with the French navy, 
bottle up the British in the Chesapeake and so 
force them to surrender. He must get food as 
best he could. And above all, he must play 
the fox. Daring was required first and fore- 
most, and daring was what Lafayette had al- 
ready shown that he possessed. 

The Marquis left camp at once. His troops 



176 LAFAYETTE 

were the New England Light Infantry, and 
with these he made a feint as if he intended to 
attack Staten Island, but instead kept on 
across New Jersey. At Morristown New Jer- 
sey troops joined his command. He reached 
Philadelphia on February twenty-sixth, and 
on the third of March he was at the Head of 
Elk, an inlet at the upper end of Chesapeake 
Bay. He was constantly busy and alert. He 
wrote to Thomas Jefferson, the Governor of 
Virginia, with regard to militia, artillery horses 
and vessels; to General von Steuben, who was 
in command of the militia there; and fre- 
quently to Washington. And Washington 
wrote to him on March eighth from Newport, 
giving this welcome news concerning the 
French naval contingent, " The whole fleet 
went out with a fair wind this evening about 
sunset." 

Lafayette, on board the Dolphin, an^ived at 
Annapolis, whence he and the Count de Char- 
lus, son of the Marquis de Castries, Secretary 
of the French Navy, went in a small boat on a 
reconnoitering expedition as far as Yorktown. 
They saw no signs of the French fleet, and con- 
cluded that it had been delayed by adverse 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 177 

winds. So, while waiting for the squadron, he 
left his army at Annapolis, and rode with a few 
officers to consult with Baron von Steuben and 
seek his aid. He secured some companies of 
militia at Williamsburg, near the York River, 
and proceeded to the camp of General Muhlen- 
berg, near Suffolk, and went from there to 
have a look at Benedict Arnold's defenses at 
Portsmouth. 

Word came to him that a fleet had anchored 
in Chesapeake Bay, and he thought that it 
must be the French ships he was expecting 
under command of Des Touches, who had suc- 
ceeded Admiral de Terney. But soon it ap- 
peared that the fleet was British, and a little 
later Lafayette learned that the first French 
squadron had found there was not sufficient 
water in the bay for them, and had sailed back 
to Newport, while a second squadron had been 
driven off by the enemy. The result was that 
General Arnold's forces were relieved from the 
danger of being bottled up, and the British 
were reinforced by two new regiments under 
General Phillips, who now took command of 
all the English armies in Virginia. 

Naturally this turn of affairs was very dis- 



178 LAFAYETTE 

appointing to Lafayette, but he made the best 
of the situation. He rode to Fredericksburg, 
where he paid his respects to ]Mrs. Washing- 
ton, the mother of the General, and then 
snatched time for a hasty visit to Mount Ver- 
non. To make up for these indulgences he 
traveled by night to rejoin his command, send- 
ing orders ahead to Annapolis to have the 
troops prepared for immediate departure. 

He reached Annapolis on April fourth, and 
found a surprise awaiting him. In the Severn 
River lay the Ho'pe and the Monk, both British 
boats, and both blocking his retreat. There 
were very few horses or wagons or small boats 
for crossing the ferries, and he seemed to be 
caught in a trap. But he was a man of re- 
sourcefulness, and he had resort to a clever 
stratagem. He put tv/o eighteen-pounders on 
a small sloop, which, with another ship under 
Commodore Nicholson, sailed out toward the 
enemy vessels, firing their guns as if about to 
attack. The two English ships on guard with- 
drew a considerable distance down the bay, and 
then Lafayette embarked his troops on his own 
boats and got them out of the harbor and up 
the bay to Elk. They reached there safely 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 179 

during the night, followed by Lafayette and 
Nicholson in the sloop. 

He landed at Head of Elk one month to a 
dajr from the time of his departure. He had 
failed in trapping Benedict Arnold; but that 
had not been due to any fault of his, but be- 
cause Des Touches had not been quick enough 
in closing the mouth of the Chesapeake. Yet 
Lafayette had learned much from his expedi- 
tion. He knew the ground well, and he had 
shown himself an adroit commander in han- 
dling troops in difficult situations. 

The arrival of Major-General William Phil- 
lips to command the British troops in Virginia 
increased Washington's anxieties concerning 
the campaign in the South. The situation of 
the Americans there was extremely perilous. 
General Greene was having all he could do to 
oppose Cornwallis in North Carolina. The 
Americans were outnumbered, most of the time 
ragged and hungry. They were often making 
forced marches over great stretches of prime- 
val forests and undergrowth, fording rivers 
swollen by ton^ntial rains. They had insuffi- 
cient arms, ammunition, and artillery. Horses 
were not always available to draw such guns as 



180 LAFAYETTE 

they had, and oxen had to be used. And all 
the time the British were pressing at their heels, 
forcing them to rear-guard actions, surprising 
them in continual ambushed attacks. And 
now not only Cornwallis, but Phillips also was 
in the field with fresh and well-equipped 
troops. Washington wondered if General 
Greene's army was to be annihilated as that of 
Gates had been. Unless strong opposition 
could be brought against Phillips the latter 
might quickly overrun Virginia and unite with 
Cornwallis. In this predicament the com- 
mander-in-chief determined to put the defense 
of Virginia in the hands of Lafayette. 

At the time, Lafayette, with his army, had 
returned to Head of Elk, and was preparing 
to start on his march of three hundred miles 
back to Washington's headquarters. Then 
came a fresh order that caused him to right- 
about-face. " Turn your detachment to the 
southward," Washington wrote. At first the 
Marquis was disappointed. He thought that 
the most important campaign would take place 
around New York, and he wanted to be there. 
But when he understood that Washington con- 
sidered it of the greatest urgency that he should 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 181 

support General Greene, he immediately pre- 
pared for this new plan. 

His troops left Head of Elk on April tenth, 
crossed the Susquehanna River at the Bald 
Briar in a storm on the thirteenth and reached 
Baltimore a few days later. There he bor- 
rowed ten thousand dollars from the merchants 
of the city on his personal security, an3 with 
this bought food and supplies. Some of his 
men had declared that they would rather "take 
a hundred lashes " than march south; but their 
new equipment put fresh courage in them. A 
general who would buy them new shirts and 
trousers and stout boots was one worth follow- 
ing. Lafayette told them that his business 
and theirs was to fight an enemy greatly supe- 
rior in numbers, through difficulties of every 
sort, and added that any soldier who was un- 
willing to accompany him might avoid the pen- 
alties of desertion by applying for a pass to 
the North. His men, placed on their mettle, 
stood by him cheerfully. As a result he said 
of them, " These three battalions are the best 
troops that ever took the field; my confidence 
in them is unbounded." 

Before he left Baltimore the citizens gave a 



182 LAFAYETTE 

ball in his honor, an event Lafayette greatly 
enjoyed. 

On April nineteenth he led his troops toward 
the Potomac River, and from then on he moved 
with great speed and cunning. He went to 
Alexandria, to Fredericksburg, to Bowling 
Green, to Hanover Court House, and on the 
twenty-ninth reached Richmond. 

Lafayette had arrived at Richmond in the 
very nick of time, for the British General Phil- 
lips had planned to take that city and seize the 
valuable military stores the Americans had 
collected there. Phillips had no idea that La- 
fayette was so near. The British had ascended 
the James River, driven General von Steuben 
out of Petersburg, and hastened toward the 
Virginia capital. One of them said, " Next 
morning they marched to Manchester, from 
whence they had a view of M. Fayette's army 
encamped on the heights of Richmond." Phil- 
lips was greatly surprised. Lafayette had 
only about nine hundred Continentals in addi- 
tion to his militia, and his opponent had twen- 
ty-three hundred men; but Phillips, angry as 
a hornet, decided the better policy for him was 
to retire from Richmond. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 183 

The Frenchman had marched so fast that he 
had had to leave his artillery and even the tents 
for his soldiers to come on later. He wrote to 
Washington, " The leaving of my artillery ap- 
pears a strange whim, but had I waited for it 
Richmond was lost. ... It was not with- 
out trouble I have made this rapid march." 

His next move was to keep watch of Phil- 
lips, and defeat his plans whenever he could. 
The British General retreated down the river 
to Brandon's, and Lafayette advanced to Bot- 
tom's Creek and the Chickahominy. The two 
wily commanders constantly tried to outwit 
each other. But Lafayette continued to have 
the better of this dance that lasted nine weeks. 
He was holding in check a much larger force 
than his own, which, but for him, might seize 
Richmond, or join Cornwallis, or harry the 
army of General Greene. 

Cornwallis, however, now decided to take a 
hand in the game. When he heard how the 
Marquis had reached Richmond before Phil- 
lips he vowed that he would defeat " that boy 
Lafayette." He stopped his campaign against 
Greene in North Carolina and determined to 
take command himself in Virginia. Accord- 



184 LAFAYETTE 

ingly he sent word to Phillips to await his ar- 
rival at Petersburg. He expected, perhaps 
not unnaturally, that he, a major-general and 
an officer of great experience, would have an 
easy time with this " boy " in command of raw 
troops. 

Lafayette got word of the northward march 
of Cornwallis, and waited eagerly for the com- 
ing of Anthony Wayne, who was to reinforce 
him. Meantime he wanted to prevent General 
Phillips from getting to Petersburg. Phillips, 
however, was nearer to that town and reached 
it first, forcing Lafayette to fall back on Rich- 
mond, though the latter sent out Colonel 
Gimat, with artillery, to keep the enemy 
busy. 

In Petersburg, on May thirteenth. General 
Phillips died. It was before this general's 
guns that Lafayette's father had fallen at the 
battle of Hastenbeck. Benedict Arnold was 
second in command, and at this time he had 
occasion to write to Lafayette regarding pris- 
oners of war. He sent the letter under a flag 
of truce; but when the Marquis learned the 
name of the writer he at once informed the men 
who brought Arnold's communication that 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 185 

while he would be glad to treat with any other 
English officer he could not receive a message 
from this one. This placed Arnold in a diffi- 
cult position and was resented by a threat to 
send all American prisoners to the West In- 
dies. But when the people of the country 
heard of the Frenchman's act they were de- 
lighted, and Washington wrote to him, ** Your 
conduct upon every occasion meets my appro- 
bation, but in none more than in your refusing 
to hold a correspondence with Arnold." 

Benedict Arnold, for personal reasons, had a 
keen interest in the treatment of prisoners. 
The story is told that when an American cap- 
tain who had been taken prisoner was brought 
to the General's tent, Arnold asked him, 
" What would be my fate if I should be taken 
prisoner? " The captain answered, " They 
will cut off that leg of yours w^hich was 
wounded in your country's service at Quebec 
and Saratoga, and bury it with the honors of 
war, and then hang the rest of you." 

But Arnold's day was over. On May 24, 
1781, Cornwallis reached Petersburg, and soon 
after ordered Arnold elsewhere. From then 
he disappears from the story of the Revolution, 



186 LAFAYETTE 

leaving only a dishonored name in the memory 
of his countrymen. 

Lafayette now had to face a greatly superior 
army under command of a vastly more experi- 
enced general. At Byrd's Plantation, where 
Cornwallis had his headquarters, the British 
commander wrote, " The boy cannot escape 
me." 

And the young Frenchman knew he had a 
real task set before him. 



X 

''CORNWALLIS HAS SURRENDERED!'' 

CoRNWALLis^ toward the end of May, 1781, 
set out to conquer Virginia. The only Ameri- 
can force to oppose him was that of Lafayette, 
for General Greene had sent the Marquis a 
letter directing him to take command in that 
State. All that Lafayette could do was to 
follow the tactics of General von Steuben; re- 
treat slowly, carrying his stores, whenever pos- 
sible, to places of safety. 

But that retreat kept him constantly busy. 
When he had been in the North he had longed 
for more to do. Now, he wrote to Alexander 
Hamilton, " my complaint is quite of the op- 
posite nature." The British, he thought, had 
between four thousand and five thousand men. 
" We have nine hundred Continentals," he con- 
tinued in his letter. " Their infantry is near 
five to one, their cavalry ten to one. Our mili- 
tia is not numerous, some without arms, and 
are not used to war." He urged Hamilton to 
come South and take command of the artil- 



188 LAFAYETTE 

lery; he wanted one real fight, " to receive one 
blow," he said, " that, being beat, I may at 
least be beat with some decency. . . . But, 
if the Pennsylvanians come. Lord Cornwallis 
shall pay something for his victory." As 
things stood he felt that he was " not strong- 
enough even to be beaten." 

But the Pennsylvanians under Wayne were 
slow in arriving. Lafayette wrote to Wash- 
ington, " Were I to fight a battle I should be 
cut to pieces, the militia dispersed and the arms 
lost. ... I am therefore determined to 
skirmish, but not to engage too far; and par- 
ticularly to take care against their immense 
and excellent body of horse, whom the militia 
fear as they would so many wild beasts." 

The Virginia militia grew impatient and be- 
gan to show signs of deserting as the harvest- 
time approached and they felt the urge of home 
duties. There was also the danger of disease. 
" By the utmost care to avoid infected ground," 
Lafayette wrote in another letter, " we have 
hitherto got rid of the smallpox. I wish the 
harvest-time might be as easily got over." 

Cornwallis, on his part, was as satisfied with 
the situation as Lafayette was troubled by it. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 189 

He sent word to General Clinton, " I shall now 
proceed to dislodge Lafayette from Richmond, 
and with my light troops to destroy magazines 
or stores in the neighborhood. . . . From 
thence I propose to move to the neck at Wil- 
liamsburg, which is represented as healthy 
. . . and keep myself unengaged from op- 
erations which might interfere with your plan 
for the campaign until I have the satisfaction 
of hearing from you." 

Lafayette left Richmond, as Cornwallis 
planned. The Marquis was forced to retreat 
before the superior army, or, as he put it, made 
to engage in " a runaway kind of war that I 
most heartily detest." If he should be caught, 
his army would be crushed, and Virginia, the 
key to the South, thrown open to the enemy. 
Speedily he marched to the Forks of the Chick- 
ahominy, thence to the South Anna, to the 
North Anna, to the Rapidan. He was look- 
ing for the troops of Wayne. And after him 
came Cornwallis. The British had raided the 
plantation stables, and Tarleton's dragoons 
were mounted on Virginia race-horses. The 
dragoons and the rangers overran the country, 
descended upon Charlottesville, captured 



190 LAFAYETTE 

seven members of the Legislature, and almost 
took the Governor, Thomas Jefferson, him- 
self. 

By early June the retreating Marquis had 
reached northern Virginia, and then one day 
his eyes were gladdened by the sight of waving 
plumes. The troops were '* Mad Anthony " 
Wayne's men, and though their clothes might 
be in tatters their General saw to it that their 
plumes were of the best. There were less than 
a thousand soldiers, but they, and their com- 
mander, were full of fight; and from the mo- 
ment of their arrival Lafaj^ette abandoned his 
policy of retreating. 

Cornwallis, having heard of Anthony 
Wayne, began to grow cautious. He decided 
that he had done about all the damage he could 
in Virginia. The tobacco had been burned, 
and all the horses stolen. The homes of the 
planters had been emptied of silver, and the 
negroes were hiding in the swamps. More- 
over he had allowed himself to be drawn farther 
than was wise from his base of supplies. Then 
came an order from General Clinton, directing 
him to send three thousand troops to New 
York and to seek a safe defensive position. So 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 101 

Cornwallis now began to retreat down the 
James River. 

Lafayette immediately followed, and a zig- 
zag game commenced. One army was con- 
tinually seeking to outwit the other. Once 
Lafayette's flank was in danger. He marched 
his men by night, however, over a forgotten 
wood road and reached safety. Six hundred 
mounted men came to join him from neighbor- 
ing counties, and were warmly welcomed, for 
he was in great need of horses. At one time, 
to get his troops forward faster, he had each 
horse carry double. When General von Steu- 
ben joined him on June nineteenth the Ameri- 
cans and the British each had about four thou- 
sand men, though in the American army there 
were only fifteen hundred regulars and fifty 
dragoons. 

Swords for the cavalry were even scarcer 
than horses, but Lafayette wanted mounted 
troops, and so he planned to provide some of 
his riders with spears, " which," he said, " in 
the hands of a gentleman must be a formidable 
weapon." In one way and another he kept his 
men mounted and armed and continued along 
the James, pressing hard on the enemy's heels. 



192 LAFAYETTE 

Cornwallis, on his side, was planning to send 
a large number of his men north to reinforce 
Clinton, as he had been directed, and to com- 
bine the rest with the British garrison at Ports- 
mouth, near Norfolk. To do that he would 
have to cross to the south side of the James 
River, and he felt very certain that Lafayette 
would seize that opportunity to attack him. 
Accordingly he arranged an ambush, intending 
to lure the Americans on with the belief that 
all except the rear-guard of the British had 
reached the opposite bank. 

General Wayne was leading the American 
advance, and on July sixth he heard that Corn- 
wallis was crossing the James River at Green 
Springs. Immediately he hastened forward, 
to catch the enemy out of position, which was 
what Cornwallis expected. Meantime, how- 
ever, Lafayette, who was alert as a fox when it 
came to snares and traps, observed that the 
British were clinging tenaciously to their base 
on the northern bank and were replacing the 
wounded officers whom American riflemen 
picked off. He rode out on a point of land, 
and seeing that the British troops were waiting 
under protection of their artillery, immediately 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 193 

perceived the ambush. At once he spurred 
back to give General Wayne warning. By 
that time, however, Wayne's men had ah'eady 
opened fire. 

Wayne had gone forward some distance 
when, to his great surprise, at the other end of 
a dirt and corduroy road that led across a 
marsh he found Cornwallis waiting for hun 
with five thousand veteran troops. It was a 
tight place, but Anthony Wayne's policy al- 
ways was " among a choice of difficulties, to 
advance and charge." This he immediately 
did. His riflemen opened fire, and then 
charged with the bayonet, — eight hundred 
against five thousand. Audacity won the day. 
Cornwallis thought that Lafayette was about 
to attack him with all his army, which he knew 
now nmnbered six thousand men. He drew 
his troops back, and Wayne, taking advantage 
of this, retreated safely out of the ambush. 

Lafayette, who had joined Wayne, greatly 
admired the latter's daring tactics, and wrote 
to Washington in praise of him. Apparently 
the Marquis had also been daring that day, for 
Wayne, when he made his report that no offi- 
cers had been killed, though many of them had 



194 LAFAYETTE 

had horses wounded under them, added, " I 
will not condole with the Marquis for the loss 
of two of his, as he was frequently requested to 
keep at a greater distance. His native bravery 
rendered him deaf to the admonition." 

Cornwallis now crossed the James and con- 
tinued his march to the seaboard. Putting his 
army aboard transports, he sailed up the Ches- 
apeake and into the next river north of the 
James, the York. In the meantime Clinton 
wrote to him, rebuking him for leaving so much 
of Virginia in the hands of the Americans, and 
directing him to fortify a place between the 
James and York Rivers that would secure a 
harbor for ships of the line. Cornwallis picked 
out a village on the high bluffs, called York- 
town, and fortified it, and also Gloucester 
Point, on the opposite bank. 

While the British were building defenses in 
the early part of August, Lafayette led his 
troops to Williamsburg and gave them the rest 
they needed after so many weeks of constant 
marching. He sent out scouting parties; but 
there were no British to be seen. Except for 
those at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, the 
whole countryside was occupied by Americans. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 195 

This inactivity soon began to make the Mar- 
quis fret. He wrote to Washington that he 
knew nothing of what was going on in the 
world outside Virginia, that he was homesick 
for headquarters, and that if he could pot help 
in the defense of New York, he would at least 
like to know what was happening there. 
Washington replied that he expected soon to 
send him important news. 

While Lafayette and Cornwallis had been 
playing a game of tag in the South the com- 
mander-in-chief had not been idle in the North. 
Washington had held a conference with Ro- 
chambeau on May twenty-first at Wethersfield, 
in Connecticut. The Count de Barras, who 
had succeeded Admiral de Terney in command 
of the French squadron at Newport, was not 
able to attend the meeting, at which plans were 
discussed for bringing about joint action by 
the French army and navy and the American 
troops. Rochambeau favored a campaign in 
the South. Washington, disliking the waste 
of soldiers and time required by a long march 
to Virginia, preferred an attack on Clinton 
in the North, provided he could count on 
the assistance of the French West Indian 



1^6 LAFAYETTE 

fleet, under command of the Count de 
Grasse. 

At that time the campaign was not going 
well in Virginia, and Washington thought 
that nothing would help the American cause so 
much as an attack in force on the British in 
New York. So Rochambeau sent the frigate 
JLa Concorde to the West Indies with a letter 
to De Grasse explaining Washington's plans 
and urging the Admiral to sail north and bring 
with him the five or six thousand French troops 
who were stationed at Santo Domingo. Ro- 
chambeau wrote, " General Washington has 
but a handful of men. This country has been 
driven to bay. The Continental army has been 
annihilated." In addition to men, Rocham- 
beau urged De Grasse to bring with him 
money, much needed to finance the campaign. 

De Grasse had meantime written to Ro- 
chambeau, " It will be toward the fifteenth of 
July at the earliest that I shall be able to reach 
the coast of North America." Rochambeau 
wrote an even more urgent letter to the Ad- 
miral. And soon the man-of-war Saggittaire, 
with troops in convoy, brought money and 
other supplies, and Rochambeau joined his 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 197 

forces to those of Washington at Dobbs' Ferry 
on the sixth of July. 

Shortly afterwards even more promising 
news reached the commander-in-chief. De 
Grasse was coming with his whole fleet. He 
would bring troops, with field-pieces, siege- 
guns, mortars, everything that was needed to 
equip an army in the field. He would sail for 
the Capes of Chesapeake, ** the point," he 
wrote Rochambeau, " which appears to me to 
have been indicated by you, Monsieur le 
Comte, and by MM. Washington, de la Lu- 
zerne and de Barras, as the one from which the 
advantage which you propose may be most cer- 
tainly attained." And he added, " As I shall 
be able to remain upon the Continent with my 
troops only until the fifteenth of October, I 
shall be obliged to you. Monsieur le Comte, if 
you make use of me promptly and effectively." 

Washington and Rochambeau thought that 
here was a chance to win the war at last. No 
time must be lost, however, if they were to use 
De Grasse's men. The commander-in-chief at 
once sent a courier to Lafayette, telling him 
of the arrival of the French fleet and the plan 
to capture Cornwallis. The Marquis was to 



198 LAFAYETTE 

see that Cornwallis did not escape toward the 
South; and if General Wayne had started for 
the Carolinas he was to return to Virginia to 
reinforce the Americans. 

Placing some of his troops in such a way 
that Clinton would think he was planning to 
attack New York, Washington, in company 
with Rochambeau, started south on the twenty- 
third and twenty-fourth of August. Clinton 
did think that this march was part of a move- 
ment against his armj^, and it was not until 
the second of September that he discovered 
that he was not facing Washington, but Gen- 
eral William Heath, who had been put in com- 
mand of the American forces on the Hudson. 

By that time Washington and Rochambeau, 
with two thousand Continentals and four thou- 
sand French, had made good progress south- 
ward. The commander-in-chief reached Phila- 
delphia on the thirtieth of August. There 
Rochambeau gave the Continental soldiers a 
welcome surprise by paying them twenty thou- 
sand dollars in gold. At Chester, on Septem- 
ber fifth, Washington heard that De Grasse 
had arrived in the Chesapeake. He waved his 
hat in the air as Rochambeau came up and told 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 199 

his French ally the good news. One of the 
French officers said, " I never saw a man so 
thoroughly and openly delighted," and Colonel 
Guillaume de Deux-Ponts declared that " in- 
stead of the reserved and exceedingly dignified 
manner of the Commander-in-Chief to which 
they had grown accustomed, they then saw his 
face beaming in delight, and ' a child where 
every wish had been gratified could not have 
expressed a keener joy.' " 

Washington showed his ardent, human side 
frequently to such friends as Lafayette, and 
sometimes, as when he heard of the French 
fleet's arrival, to his officers and men. 

Next he went to Head of Elk, where Ro- 
chambeau's troops arrived on the eighth of 
September and boarded boats. By a quick ride 
the commander-in-chief made a visit to Mount 
Vernon, the first in six years. On the four- 
teenth he met Lafayette at Williamsburg, and 
found that the French soldiers from the West 
Indies had already placed themselves under 
command of the Marquis. 

The newly arrived French officers had a 
high opinion of Lafayette's military tactics. 
Gaieral du Portail had written concerning 



200 LAFAYETTE 

him, " Our young General's judgment is ma- 
ture; with all the ardor of his temperament, I 
think he will be able to wait for the proper mo- 
ment and not touch the fruit until it is ripe." 
And French officers much older in service now 
showed themselves glad to serve under his di- 
rection. 

Some time earlier Lafayette had written a 
description of the military situation in Virginia 
to Washington, and had added, " Should a 
French fleet now come into Hampton Roads, 
the British army would, I think, be ours." 
The French fleet had now come, and it looked 
indeed as if Comwallis were to be caught at 
Yorktown. 

Washington stationed General Wayne at 
Westover to bar the road south against Corn- 
wallis, and sent Colonel de Gimat to Cape 
Henry to watch for De Grasse. Colonel de 
Gimat boarded the flag-ship, Ville de Paris, 
and gave the Admiral the messages from the 
commander and from Lafayette. Lafayette 
begged De Grasse " to sail up Chesapeake 
Bay immediately, to drive the enemy's frigates 
into the James River in order to keep the pas- 
sage clear and to blockade the York River." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 201 

Meantime the British Admiral Rodney had 
been trying to attack De Grasse. He had 
sent Admiral Hood, with fourteen ships of the 
line, to reconnoitre. Hood had sailed into the 
Chesapeake in search of De Grasse before the 
Frenchman had got there, and not seeing the 
enemy, had withdrawn again. Then the 
British Admiral Graves, looking for the 
French Admiral de Barras, had encountered 
De Grasse, and the latter had gone outside 
and driven him back to New York, while the 
adroit De Barras had sailed into the bay to 
help transport the American and French 
troops that were arriving there. 

Lafayette was ready to attack Yorktown 
before the other commanders, and some of his 
officers urged him to take the field at once. 
He knew, however, what Washington wanted 
him to do, for the commander-in-chief had 
written him that should the retreat of Corn- 
wallis by water be cut off, " you will do 
all in your power to prevent his escape by 
land. May that great felicitv be reserved for 
you.'' 

The armies of Washington and Rocham- 
beau had reached Lafayette's headquarters on 



202 LAFAYETTE 

September fourteenth. Salutes were fired and 
the armies paraded. Colonel Richard Butler 
says in his Journal that many " great person- 
ages and officers supped together in the utmost 
harmony and happiness." Lafayette had the 
ague, but the next day he was better, and gave 
a dinner in honor of the officers in camp. 
Washington was now in command, and it gave 
the young Frenchman great pleasure to think 
that his friend was to complete in triumph a 
campaign that had been beset with so many 
hardships and trials. 

On the twenty-seventh of September Wash- 
ington issued his orders for the investment of 
Yorktown. Next morning the two armies 
marched forward. Washington wrote, " Half 
a mile beyond the Half-way House the French 
and Americans separated. The former con- 
tinued on the direct road to York, by the Brick 
House; the latter filed off to the right for 
Munford's Bridge, where a junction with the 
militia was to be made. About noon the head 
of each column arrived at its ground." 

The American troops were on the right, the 
French on the left wing. Defenses were 
thrown up, and advantage taken of the woods 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 203 

and the marshy creeks. Tighter and tighter 
the allies brought their lines about Cornwallis. 
The armies held the mainland, the French fleet 
blocked the path to the sea; the British were 
caught in the trap. 

The allied batteries opened fire, set enemy 
vessels ablaze in the York River and sunk 
many of them. On October tenth Cornwallis 
attempted to break through at Gloucester 
Point. He embarked troops on flat boats, 
crossed the York River, and tried to turn the 
right wing of the French. Watchful outposts 
drove him back. On the night of October 
fourteenth two British redoubts were taken, 
one bj^ French troops, the other by Americans 
under Lafayette. Six shells fired in quick suc- 
cession was the signal to advance, and Lafay- 
ette's four hundred men went forward under 
fire without returning a shot, and took the re- 
doubt at the point of the bayonet in short or- 
der. Then on October seventeenth a British 
drummer appeared on Yorktown's ramparts, 
and Cornwallis sent a note to Washington ask- 
ing for an armistice to arrange terms of sur- 
render. 

Through the ragged, but determined, army 



204 LAFAYETTE 

of the Republic, ran the triumphant tidings 
" Cornwallis has surrendered! " 

An American and a French officer met two 
British officers at a farmhouse, and articles of 
surrender were drawn up and accepted. The 
French historian Jusserand writes, " On the 
19th of October, after a loss of less than 300 
men in each of the besieging armies, an act was 
signed as great in its consequences as any that 
ever followed the bloodiest battles, the capitu- 
lation of Yorktown. It was in a way a ratifi- 
cation of that other act, which had been pro- 
posed for signature five years before at Phila- 
delphia by men whose fate had more than once 
in the interval seemed desperate, the Declara- 
tion of Independence." 

In the afternoon of October 19, 1781, the 
army of Cornwallis marched out of Yorktown 
with their colors cased, their drums beating 
the tune " The World Turned Upside Down,'' 
between the long lines of French and Ameri- 
cans drawn up on the Hampton Road, to a 
field where a squadron of French soldiers had 
spread out to form a large circle. Cornwallis 
was ill, and sent General O'Hara to represent 
him. The sword of the British commander 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 205 

was received on Washington's behalf by Gen- 
eral Lincoln, who at once returned it. 

As it happened, the French officer who had 
prepared the articles of surrender at the farm- 
house was Lafayette's brother-in-law, the Vi- 
comte de Noailles, one of the two young men 
to whom Lafayette had taken the word that he 
meant to go " to America to fight for liberty! " 
Now the Vicomte saw that the ardent hopes 
of the young enthusiast had borne such glori- 
ous fruit ! 

There stands a monument on the heights 
above the York River, in Virginia, and on one 
side of it are these words: " At York, on Octo- 
ber 19, 1781, after a seige of nineteen days, by 
5,500 American and 7,000 French Troops of 
the Line, 3,500 Virginia Militia under com- 
mand of General Thomas Nelson and 36 
French ships of war. Earl Cornwallis, Com- 
mander of the British Forces at York and 
Gloucester, surrendered his army, 7,251 offi- 
cers and men, 840 seamen, 244 cannons and 24 
standards to His Excellency George Wash- 
ington, Commander in Chief of the Colonial 
Forces of America and France, to His Excel- 
lency the Comte de Rochambeau, commanding 



206 LAFAYETTE 

the auxiliary Troops of His Most Christian 
Majesty in America, and to His Excellency 
the Comte de Grasse, commanding in chief the 
Naval Army of France in Chesapeake." 

It was largely due to Lafayette that the 
French fleet and the army of Rochambeau had 
crossed the ocean and that the Americans in 
Virginia had succeeded in bottling up Corn- 
wallis at Yorktown and so bringing an end to 
the Revolution. 

A week after the surrender of Cornwallis 
British forces came down from New York, — 
Clinton, Graves, Hood, with a big fleet and 
seven thousand fresh troops, — but when they 
reached the Capes of the Chesapeake they 
learned what had happened at Yorktown and 
turned back again. 

Lafayette went with Washington to visit 
Admiral de Grasse, and the plan of an expe- 
dition to the Carolinas, in which Lafayette was 
to command the land forces, was discussed, but 
since the French admiral was in haste to be off, 
the expedition was abandoned, and soon after- 
wards De Grasse's fleet sailed for the West 
Indies. 

Lafayette then set out for the North. He 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 207 

stopped at Baltimore, where the citizens had 
loaned him money and where the women had 
sewed shirts for his needy soldiers, and said, 
in reply to an addi-ess, " My campaign began 
with a personal obligation to the people of 
Baltimore, at the end of which I find myself 
bound to them by a tie of everlasting grati- 
tude." 

Then he went on to pay his respects to Con- 
gress in Philadelphia. 

And so, in success, ended Lafayette's cam- 
paign against Yorktown. " It was the grand- 
est of causes," he said, " won by the skirmishes 
of sentinels and outposts." 



XI 

THE MARQUIS AIDS THE UNITED STATES 
IN FRANCE 

Word of the surrender at Yorktown was 
received all through the thirteen States with 
the greatest joy. Watchmen calling the hours 
of the night in the cities cried, " Twelve o'clock ! 
All's well, and Cornwallis has surrendered!" 
Everywhere the people hailed this event as 
heralding the close of the long and distressing 
war. When one thinks of what they had en- 
dured since 1775 there is no wonder at the 
hymns of thanksgiving. And a ship at once 
sailed across the Atlantic to France with the 
glad tidings. 

The surrender at Yorktown did mark the 
beginning of the end of the Revolution, though 
the conflict went on in a desultory fashion for 
two years more, and it was not until November 
25, 1783, that the British evacuated New York 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 209 

City. But after Yorktown many of the 
French officers went home, and among them 
Lafayette. He wrote to the French minister, 
"The play is over, Monsieur le comte; the 
fifth act has just come to an end. I was some- 
what disturbed during the former acts, but my 
heart rejoices exceedingly at this last, and I 
have no less pleasure in congratulating you 
upon the happy ending of our campaign." 

Both Lafayette and Congress felt that the 
Marquis could now help the country greatly 
by his presence in France in case more men 
and money should be needed for further cam- 
paigns. So, with Washington's approval, 
Congress agreed that " Major-General the 
Marquis de Lafayette have permission to go 
to France and that he return at such time as 
shall be most convenient to him." And Con- 
gress also voted that Lafayette " be informed 
that, on a review of his conduct throughout the 
past campaign and particularly during the 
period in which he had the chief command in 
Virginia, the many new proofs which present 
themselves of his zealous attachment to the 
cause he has espoused, and of his judgment, 
vigilance, gallantry, and address in its defense, 



210 LAFAYETTE 

have greatly added to the high opinion enter- 
tained by Congress of his merits and military 
talents." 

He took his leave of Washington, the man 
he admired more than any other in the world, 
and the commander-in-chief, who looked on the 
young Frenchman as if the latter was his own 
son, said in his dignified fashion, " I owe it to 
your friendship and to my affectionate regard 
for you, my dear marquis, not to let you leave 
this country without carrying with you fresh 
marks of my attachment to you and new ex- 
pressions of the high sense I entertain of your 
military conduct and other important services 
in the course of the last campaign, although 
the latter are too well known to need the testi- 
mony of my approbation, and the former, I 
persuade myself, you believe is too well riveted 
to undergo diminution or change." 

The Frenchman was not so reserved as the 
American. His ardent spirit shows in the 
letter he wrote his commander. " Adieu, my 
dear general," he said. " I know your heart 
so well that I am sure that no distance can 
alter your attachment to me. With the same 
candor I assure you that my love, my respect, 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 211 

my gratitude for you are above expression; 
that, at the moment of leaving you, I feel more 
than ever the struggle of those friendly ties 
that forever bind me to you, and that I antici- 
pate the pleasure, the most wished-f or pleasure, 
to be again with you, and, by my zeal and serv- 
ices, to gratify the feelings of my respect and 
affection." 

On December 23, 1781, Lafayette sailed 
from Boston on the same frigate Alliance that 
had carried him back to France the first time. 
He was to be received in his native land like a 
conquering hero. Already Vergennes, the 
Secretary of State of France, had written to 
him. " Our joy is very great here and 
throughout the nation," said Vergennes, " and 
you may be assured that your name is held in 
veneration. ... I have been following 
you, M. le Marquis, step by step, throughout 
your campaign in Virginia; and I should fre- 
quently have been anxious for your welfare if 
I had not been confident of your wisdom. It 
required a great deal of skill to maintain your- 
self, as you did, for so long a time, in spite of 
the disparity of your forces, before Lord Corn- 
wallis, whose military talents are well known. 



212 LAFAYETTE 

It was you who brought hun to the fatal end- 
ing, where, instead of his making you a pris- 
oner of war, as he probably expected to do, you 
forced him to surrender." 

He landed in France on January 17, 1782. 
If his former arrival had been a succession of 
triumphs, this one was doubly so. When he 
reached the house of the Duke de Noailles in 
Paris his wife was attending a fete at the 
Hotel de Ville in honor of the birth of the 
Dauphin. As soon as his arrival became 
known the Queen took Madame de Lafayette 
in her own carriage and went with her to wel- 
come the Marquis. Louis XVI. announced 
that he had promoted Lafayette to the high 
rank of " Marechal de camp," and wrote to 
him, through his minister of war, " The King, 
having been informed, sir, of the military skill 
of which you have given repeated proof in the 
command of the various army corps entrusted 
to you in America, of the wisdom and pru- 
dence which have marked the services that you 
have performed in the interest of the United 
States, and of the confidence which you have 
won from General Washington, his Majesty 
has charged me to announce to you that the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 213 

coiiiniendations which you most fully deserve 
have attracted his notice, and that your con- 
duct and your success have given him, sir, the 
most favorable opinion of you, such as you 
might wish him to have, and upon which you 
may rely for his future good-will." 

^very one delighted to entertain and praise 
him; the Marshal de Richelieu invited him to 
dine with all the marshals of France, and at 
the dinner the health of Washington was drunk 
with every honor. And if the King and the 
nobles were loud in their acclaim, the people 
were no less so; they called Lafayette by such 
extravagant titles as the " Conqueror of Corn- 
wallis " and " the Saviour of America with 
Washington." Had it not been that Lafay- 
ette had a remarkably level head the things 
that people said and wrote about him might al- 
most have made him believe that he had won 
the Revolution in America single-handed. 

Naturally he enjoyed being with his dear 
wife and children again, but he was not a man 
who could contentedly lead the idle life of a 
nobleman in Paris. Soon he was busy doing 
what he could to help the cause of the young 
American republic in France. He saw a 



214 LAFAYETTE 

great deal of John Adams and Benjamin 
Franldin, the commissioners of the United 
States to the French court, and Franklin 
wrote home concerning him, " The Marquis de 
Lafayette was, at his return hither, received 
b}^ all ranks with all possible distinction. He 
daily gains in the general esteem and affection, 
and promises to be a great man here. He is 
extremely attached to our cause ; we are on the 
most friendly and confidential footing with 
each other, and he is really very serviceable to 
me in my applications for additional assist- 
ance." 

He planned to return to America to rejoin 
the army. "In spite of all my happiness 
here," he wrote to Washington, " I cannot help 
wishing, ten times a day, to be on the other side 
of the Atlantic." But the Continental army 
was merely marking time, no active campaign 
was in progress, and neither Lafayette nor 
French troops were again needed to fight 
across the ocean. 

The negotiations for peace were long drawn 
out, and in the autumn of 1782 France and 
Spain again planned a joint expedition against 
the English in America. A strong fleet of 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 215 

sixty battle-ships and an army of twenty-four 
thousand men were gathered with the purpose 
of sailing from the Spanish port of Cadiz to 
capture the English island of Jamaica and at- 
tack New York and Canada. Lafayette was 
made chief of staff of the combined expedi- 
tion, and, wearing the uniform of an Amer- 
ican general, he set sail from Brest early in 
December for Cadiz. But the grand fleet was 
still in port when a courier arrived with news 
that a treaty of peace had just been signed in 
Paris. So the fleet did not sail. A protocol, 
or provisional treaty, was drawn up, and on 
September 3, 1783, the final treaty was signed, 
by which Great Britain acknowledged the in- 
dependence of the United States. 

As soon as he heard the good news, Lafay- 
ette borrowed a ship, appropriately named the 
Triumph, and sent it off to Philadelphia with 
the earliest word of peace. And by the same 
ship he despatched a letter to Washington. 
" As for you, my dear general," he wrote, 
" who can truly say that all this is j^our work, 
what must be the feelings of your good and 
virtuous heart in this happy moment! The 
eternal honor in which my descendants will 



216 LAFAYETTE 

glory, will be to have had an ancestor among 
your soldiers, to know that he had the good 
fortune of being a friend of your heart. To 
the eldest of them I bequeath, as long as my 
posterity shall endure, the favor that you have 
conferred upon my son George, by allowing 
him to bear your name." 

To Vergennes Lafayette wrote, " My great 
affair is settled ; America is sure of her inde- 
pendence; humanity has gained its cause, and 
liberty will never be without a refuge." 

From Cadiz the Marquis went to Madrid, 
where he straightened out affairs between the 
United States and the court of Spain. Then 
he went back to Paris, made several visits to 
his old castle and estates in Auvergne, and 
helped Franklin and Adams and John Jay in 
putting the affairs of the new republic on a 
satisfactory footing. 

He wanted greatly to see that young re- 
public, now that war was over and peace had 
come, and at last his wish was gratified. 
Washington had written him frequently, urg- 
ing the Marquis to visit him, and had begged 
Madame de Lafayette to come with her hus- 
band. " Come then, let me entreat you," 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 217 

Washington wrote to Adriemie. " Call my 
cottage your own; for your own doors do not 
open to you with more readiness than would 
mine. You will see the plain manner in which 
we live, and meet with rustic civility ; and you 
will taste the simplicity of rural life. It will 
diversify the scene, and may give you a higher 
relish for the gayeties of the court when you 
return to Versailles." 

Adrienne de Lafayette, however, was as 
much of a home-lover as George Washington. 
Versailles had never attracted her, and she 
liked to spend most of her time at the castle of 
Chavaniac. The voyage across the Atlantic 
was a long and trying experience in those days 
and so she answered that she preferred to stay 
in France. She also sent Washington a letter 
from her little daughter, born while her hus- 
band was in camp in America. 

Lafayette sailed from Havre on July 1, 
1784, and reached New York, which he had 
never yet seen, on August fourth. Throngs, 
eager to sing his praises, met him at the harbor, 
and followed him everywhere on his travels. 
From New York he went to Philadelphia, and 
then to Richmond, where Washington met him. 



218 LAFAYETTE 

He visited the scenes of his great Virginia cam- 
paign at Williamsburg and Yorktown, and 
spent two happy weeks with his beloved friend 
George Washington at the latter's home at 
Mount Vernon. From there he went north 
again, to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York. Up the broad Hudson he traveled to 
Albany, where he went with American com- 
missioners to a council with dissatisfied Mo- 
hawk chiefs. And to the sons of primitive 
America the j^oung Frenchman, lover of lib- 
erty everywhere, spoke so appealingly that he 
quickly won them away from their enmity for 
their white neighbors. " Father," said the 
Mohawk chief, " we have heard thy voice and 
we rejoice that thou hast visited thy children to 
give to them good and necessary advice. Thou 
hast said that we have done wrong in opening 
our ears to wicked men, and closing our hearts 
to thy counsels. Father, it is all true; we have 
left the good path; we have wandered away 
from it and have been enveloped in a black 
cloud. We have now returned that thou may- 
est find in us good and faithful children. We 
rejoice to hear thy voice among us. It seems 
that the Great Spirit had directed thy foot- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 219 

steps to this council of friendship to smoke the 
calumet of peace and fellowship with thy long- 
lost children." 

Indeed it did seem that the Great Spirit 
directed the steps of this man to the places 
where he was the most needed. 

From Albany Lafayette went across coun- 
try to Boston, where he was given a great re- 
ception and banquet in Faneuil Hall. A por- 
trait of Washington was unveiled behind the 
Marquis at the table, and he sprang to his feet 
and led in the burst of cheers that followed. 
Through New England he went as far as 
Portsmouth in New Hampshire, and then 
turned south to make a second visit to Mount 
Vernon. Everywhere he went he was received 
as the man whom the United States especially 
desired to honor. Unquestionably he deserved 
all the praise and gratitude that was showered 
upon him, for he had left his wife, his home, 
his friends, his fortune, and had come to Amer- 
ica in one of the darkest hours of her fight for 
independence, and by his confidence in her 
cause had done much to help her win her vic- 
tor}\ He had brought French troops and 
money, but most of all he had brought that 



220 LAFAYETTE 

unselfish devotion which had so heartened the 
people. The United States did not forget 
what it owed to Lafayette in 1784, it has never 
forgotten it; the republic of the Western 
World has shown that it has a long and faithful 
memory. 

At Trenton Lafayette stopped to resign his 
commission in the American army, and Con- 
gress sent a committee made up of one repre- 
sentative from each State to express the thanks 
of the nation. Then he returned to Washing- 
ton's estate on the banks of the Potomac, and 
there walked over the beautiful grounds of 
Mount Vernon, discussing agriculture with the 
owner, and sat with the latter in his library, 
listening to Washington's hopes concerning 
the young nation for which both men had done 
so much. History shows no more ideal friend- 
ship than that between the great American and 
the great Frenchman, a friendship of in- 
estimable value for the two lands from which 
they sprang. 

When the time came for parting Washing- 
ton drove his guest as far as Annapolis in his 
carriage. There the two friends separated, 
not to meet again. Washington went back to 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 221 

JNIount Vernon, and there wrote a farewell 
letter to Lafayette. " In the moment of our 
separation," he said, "upon the road as I 
traveled and every hour since, I have felt all 
that love, respect, and attachment for you, with 
which length of years, close connection, and 
your merits have inspired me. ... It is 
unnecessary, I persuade myself, to repeat to 
you, my dear marquis, the sincerity of my re- 
gards and friendship, nor have I words which 
could express my affection for you, were I to 
attempt it. My fervent prayers are offered 
for your safe and pleasant passage, a happy 
meeting with Madame de Lafayette and fam- 
ily, and the completion of every wish of your 
heart." 

Lafayette answered after he had gone on 
board the Nijmphe at New York. " Adieu, 
adieu, my dear general," said he. " It is with 
inexpressible pain that I feel I am going to be 
severed from you by the Atlantic. Every- 
thing that admiration, respect, gratitude, 
friendship, and filial love can inspire is com- 
bined in my affectionate heart to devote me 
most tenderly to you. In your friendship I 
find a delight which words cannot express. 



222 LAFAYETTE 

Adieu, my dear general. It is not without 
emotion that I write this word. Be attentive 
to your health. Let me hear from you every 
month. Adieu, adieu." 

On Christmas Day, 1784, Lafayette sailed 
for France, expecting to return to his adopted 
country in a few years. He was not to re- 
turn, however, for a long time, and in the in- 
terval much was to happen to himself and his 
own land. 

In the following summer the Marquis made 
a journey through Germany and Austria, 
where he was received not only as a French 
field-marshal, but as an informal representa- 
tive of America and a friend of Washington, 
who could answer the questions about the new 
republic which every one was eager to ask. 
At Brunswick he visited the duke who was 
later to lead the German troops against the 
army of revolutionary France. At Potsdam 
he was entertained by Frederick the Great, 
who happened on one occasion to place Lafay- 
ette between the English Duke of York and 
Lord Cornwallis at table. Lafayette was, as 
always, delightful company, and the general 
he had defeated at Yorktown wrote home to a 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 228 

friend in England, " Lafayette and I were the 
best friends possible in Silesia." 

The Frenchman saw reviews of the Prussian 
armies, and was much impressed by the dis- 
cipline of Frederick the Great. But he did 
not like that ruler, and spoke of his " despotic, 
selfish, and harsh character," and he liked his 
military system still less. He wrote to General 
Knox, " The mode of recruiting is despotic; 
there is hardly any provision for old soldiers, 
and although I found much to admire, I had 
rather be the last farmer in America than the 
first general in Berlin." 

From Prussia he went to Austria, where he 
met the emperor, and there, as in all his travels, 
he told every one of his admiration for the 
United States and for Washington, and tried 
to make them see how much the young republic 
had already accomplished for the happiness of 
men. 

The love of liberty was the dominant motive 
of Lafayette's life. He had told Washington 
of his desire to find some means of securing the 
freedom of slaves, and he wrote to John Adams 
in 1786, " Whatever be the complexion of the 
enslaved, it does not in my opinion alter the 



224 LAFAYETTE 

complexion of the crime the enslaver com- 
mits, — a crime much blacker than any African 
face. It is to me a matter of great anxiety 
and concern to find that this trade is sometimes 
perpetrated under the flag of liberty, our dear 
and noble stripes to which virtue and glory 
have been constant standard-bearers." So, on 
his return to France, he bought a plantation in 
Cayenne, and brought many negroes there, 
who, after being educated in self-government 
according to his directions, were to receive their 
freedom. He also tried to improve the con- 
dition of the French Protestants, who were 
very much persecuted, and ardently pleaded 
their cause before the King at Versailles. 

In the meantime he constantly gave his help 
to furthering the affairs of America. Thomas 
Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, who had been Governor of Vir- 
ginia when Lafayette had fought his campaign 
there, was now the United States Minister to 
France. Jefferson wrote to Washington, 
" The Marquis de Lafayette is a most valuable 
auxiliary to me. His zeal is unbounded and 
his weight with those in power is great. . . . 
He has a great deal of sound genius, is well re- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 225 

marked by the King, and rising in popularity. 
He has nothing against him but the suspicion 
of republican principles. I think he will one 
day be of the ministry." 

The United States at that time especially 
needed aid in establishing trade relations with 
France, and it was here that Lafayette proved 
himself very valuable. He obtained conces- 
sions in regard to the importing and sale of oil 
and tobacco, and his efforts on behalf of the 
American whale fishery were so successful that 
the citizens of Nantucket voted at a town- 
meeting that every man on the island who 
owned a cow should give all of one day's milk 
toward making a cheese to weigh five hundred 
pounds, and that the cheese should be '' trans- 
mitted to the Marquis de Lafayette, as a 
feeble, but not less sincere, testimonial of their 
affection and gratitude." 

The cheese was greatly appreciated, as was 
also the action of the State of Virginia, which 
ordered two busts of the Marquis to be made 
by the sculptor Houdon, one to be placed in 
the State Capitol at Richmond and the other 
in the Hotel de Ville in Paris. 

The United States had won its independ- 



226 LAFAYETTE 

ence, though its statesmen were now per- 
plexed with the problem of making one united 
nation out of thirteen separate states. But 
France had yet to deal with its own problem of 
liberty. There were many men who dreamed 
of equality in that nation and who hoped for 
it, but the King and the court were despotic, 
the peasants yoked to the soil, bowed down by 
unjust taxes, crushed by unfair laws. There 
was a spirit abroad that was destined to bring 
a temporary whirlwind. So the thinking men 
of France, and Lafayette one of the chief 
among them, turned their attention to affairs 
at home. 



XII 

HOW LAFAYETTE SOUGHT TO GIVE 
LIBERTY TO FRANCE 

The people of the thirteen American 
colonies that became the United States had 
always had more liberty than the people of 
France. Most of the colonies had been settled 
by men who had left Europe and gone to 
America in order that they might enjoy civil 
or religious independence. They largely made 
their own laws, and by the time of the Revolu- 
tion had become so well educated in self-gov- 
ernment that they were able to draw up a 
Constitution and live by its terms with ex- 
tremely little friction or unrest. The success 
that followed the forming of the republic of 
1:he West was a marvel to Europe; that success 
Was mainly due to the lessons of self-restraint 
and the real appreciation of what liberty meant 
thi^,t h^d come to the colonists before the Revo- 
Inihn Progress that is to be real progress 



228 LAFAYETTE 

must begin ri^t, and Washington and Jeffer- 
son and Franklin were far-sighted and clear- 
headed builders. The people of France had 
been putting up with wrongs a thousandfold 
worse than those the Americans had borne, but 
they had never been educated in self-govern- 
ment, and so when they tried to win liberty 
they plunged headlong into turmoil. 

France was still governed very much as it 
had been in the Middle Ages. The peasants 
were reduced to the very lowest form of living, 
starvation and ignorance were common through 
the country. The business classes were ham- 
pered by unjust laws. The nobility were idle, 
corrupt, and grossly extravagant. Almost all 
power lay in the King, and Louis XVI., 
amiable though he was, followed the lines of 
his Bourbon ancestors, Louis XIV. and 
Louis XV., the former of whom had said, 
" The State, it is I," and had ruled by that 
principle. 

Unhappily for Louis XVI., however, the 
world had progressed from the view-point of 
the Middle Ages, and men were beginning to 
talk of constitutions and of the duties that 
sovereigns owed their people. He shut his 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 229 

ears to such talk as well as he could, and his 
courtiers helped him to ignore the protests. 
The court continued to spend money on enter- 
tainments as if it was water, while the peasants 
starved. Then it was found that the expense 
of aiding the United States in the war had 
added enough to the nation's debt to make it 
impossible to pay the interest and to find means 
to carry on the government. Either the court's 
expenses must be lessened or new taxes must 
be levied. The nobles furiously resisted the 
first alternative, and the people resisted the 
second. Toward the end of 1786 Calonne, the 
Minister of Finance, had to admit that the 
treasury was bankrupt and advise the King to 
call a meeting of the Assembly of Notables to 
find some way out of the difficulty. 

The Assembly was made up almost entirely 
of men of the highest rank, who failed to ap- 
preciate the distresses of the country. Lafay- 
ette was known to hold very liberal views, he 
was constantly talking of the American 
Declaration of Independence and Constitu- 
tion, and at first a part of the court opposed 
his membership in the Assembly. He was 
given his seat there, however, and with one or 



230 LAFAYETTE 

two others tried to convince the council of the 
need of reforming the laws. But the nobles 
would not listen. They were immovably ar- 
rogant and autocratic; they would hear noth- 
ing of reforms or constitutions or the rights of 
the people. 

The Assembly of Notables reached no satis- 
factory conclusion. When it adjourned con- 
ditions grew steadily worse. The affairs of 
the country were in a terrible muddle, each 
class in the land thought only of itself, and 
each was divided, envious and hostile to the 
others. Lafayette fought heroically to bring 
them to the point of view of Washington's 
countrymen. The Marquis, however, was too 
much of an enthusiast and too little of a states- 
man to see that the long downtrodden peas- 
ants of France were a different type from the 
educated American farmers. Americans in 
France, John Adams and Gouverneur Morris, 
realized better than he did that the people of 
France were not yet fitted to govern them- 
selves; but he would not listen to these states- 
men's opinions. His role was that of a popular 
leader, not that of a far-seeing statesman in 
very difficult times. But the sufferings of the 




Louis XVI 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 231 

people were always present to him, and he took 
the most direct course he could to relieve and 
satisfy them. 

When he saw that the Assembly of Notables 
would accomplish nothing to help the situation 
Lafayette startled the meeting by asking that 
they beg the King to summon a National As- 
sembly of the States-General, a council that 
had not met for one hundred and seventy-three 
years and the existence of which had almost 
been forgotten. 

The Notables were amazed. " What, sir! " 
exclaimed the Count d'Artois, who was pre- 
siding at the meeting. " You ask the convoca- 
tion of the States-General? " 

" Yes, monseigneur," said Lafayette, " and 
even more than that." 

" You wish that I write," said the Count, 
" and that I carry to the King, * Monsieur de 
Lafayette moves to convoke the States-Gen- 
eral'?" 

" Yes, monseigneur," was Lafayette's an- 
swer. 

The proposal was sent to the King, with 
Lafayette's name the only one attached to the 
request. But as soon as the news of his peti- 



232 LAFAYETTE 

tion became known the people hailed the idea 
with delight. 

The States-General was a much more repre- 
sentative body than the Assembly of Notables, 
and Louis XVI. was loath to summon it. The 
situation of the country was so unsatisfactory, 
however, that he finally yielded and ordered 
the States-General to meet in May, 1789. 

Lafayette had great hopes of this new par- 
liament. He wrote to Washington, describing 
the situation. " The King is all-powerful," 
he said. " He possesses all the means of com- 
pulsion, of punishment, and of corruption. 
The ministers naturally incline and believe 
themselves bound to preserve despotism. The 
court is filled with swarms of vile and effemi- 
nate courtiers; men's minds are enervated bv 
the influence of women and the love of 
pleasure; the lower classes are plunged in 
ignorance. On the other hand, French char- 
acter is lively, enterprising, and inclined to 
despise those who govern. The public mind 
begins to be enlightened by the works of 
philosophers and the example of other na- 
tions." And when the state of affairs grew 
even more disturbed he wrote again to the same 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 238 

friend, " In the midst of these troubles and this 
anarchy, the friends of liberty strengthen them- 
selves daily, shut their ears to every com- 
promise, and say that they shall have a national 
assembly or nothing. Such is, my dear gen- 
eral, the improvement in our situation. For 
my part, I am satisfied with the thought that 
before long I shall be in an assembly of repre- 
sentatives of the French nation or at Mount 
Vernon." 

Elections were held throughout the country 
to choose the members of the States-General, 
which was composed of representatives of the 
three orders, the nobles, the clergy, and what 
was known as the third estate, or the middle 
class. Lafayette went to Auvergne to make 
his campaign for election, and was chosen as 
deputy to represent the nobility of Riom. On 
May 2, 1789, the States-General paid their 
respects to the King, and on May fourth they 
marched in procession to hear Mass at the 
Church of St. Louis. The third estate marched 
last, dressed in black, and in their ranks were 
men destined before long to upset the old 
order, Mirabeau, Danton, Marat, Guillotin, 
Desmoulins, Robespierre. 



234 LAFAYETTE 

On May fifth the States-General formally 
met for business. Then began continual 
struggles between the orders of nobles and 
clergy on the one hand and the third estate on 
the other, finally ending by a declaration of the 
latter that if the first two orders would not act 
in agreement with them they would organize 
themselves, without the other two, as the States- 
General of France. 

On June twelfth the third estate met and 
called the roll of all the deputies, but none of 
the nobles or clergy answered to their names. 
Next day, however, three clerical members ap- 
peared, and the meeting felt itself sufficiently 
bold, under the leadership of Mirabeau, to de- 
clare itself positively the National Assembly 
of France. The indignant nobles answered 
this by inducing the King to suspend all meet- 
ings until a " royal session " could be held on 
June twentieth. But the third estate, having 
had a taste of power, would not bow to com- 
mand so easily, and when they found that the 
hall where they had been meeting was closed 
they withdrew to the tennis-court, where they 
took the famous oath not to separate until they 
had given a constitution to France. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 235 

At their next meeting the third estate were 
joined by a large number of the clerical mem- 
bers of the States-General and by two of the 
nobles. This gave them greater assurance. 
At the " royal session " on June twentieth, 
however, the King tried to ignore the power 
that the third estate had claimed, and the latter 
had to decide between submitting to the royal 
orders or rebelling. They decided to take the 
second course and stand firmly on their rights 
as representatives of the people. When the 
master of ceremonies tried to clear the hall 
where they had gathered Mirabeau said de- 
fiantly, " The commons of France will never 
retire except at the point of the bayonet." 

The King, although surrounded by weak 
and selfish advisers, at last yielded to the de- 
mands of the third estate, and the nobles and 
clergy joined the meetings of the National 
Assembly. 

Lafayette, who had been elected as a deputy 
of the nobility, had found his position ex- 
tremely difficult. He had thought of resign- 
ing and trying to be elected a second time as a 
deputy of the people, although Thomas Jef- 
ferson, the American minister, had urged him 



236 LAFAYETTE 

to take his stand outright with the third estate, 
arguing that his well-known liberal views 
would prevent his gaining any influence with 
his fellow-nobles and that if he delayed in tak- 
ing up the cause of the people the latter might 
regard him with suspicion. This difficulty was 
solved when, at the King's command, the 
deputies of the nobles finally joined with the 
third estate. 

The States-General, or the National As- 
sembly, as it was now generally called, went on 
with its meetings which took on more and more 
a revolutionary color. There was rioting in 
Paris and Versailles, and the King ordered 
troops to guard both places. The Assembly 
considered that the soldiers were meant to 
intimidate their sessions and requested that 
they be sent away. The King refused this 
request, and as a result the breach between 
the crown and the parliament was still further 
widened. 

Soon afterward Lafayette presented to the 
Assembly what he called his " Declaration of 
Rights," which was based on Jefferson's Dec- 
laration of Independence of the United States. 
This occasioned long discussion, for the nobles 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 237 

thought its terms were revolutionary in the 
extreme while many of the third estate con- 
sidered that it did not go nearly far enough. 
And all the time the King continued his policy 
of trying to overawe the Assembly, and 
finally appointed the Marshal de Broglie com- 
mander of the troops that were gathering 
in Paris and Versailles, planning to bring 
the third estate to its senses and show the 
mob in Paris who was the real ruler of 
France. 

Events followed rapidly. July eleventh the 
King dismissed Necker and the ministers who 
had been trying to bring order out of con- 
fusion. The Assembly, fearing that the King 
would next dissolve their meetings, declared 
itself in permanent session, and elected La- 
fayette its vice-president. The royal court, 
blind as usual, paid no attention to the storm 
the King's course was rousing, and a grand 
ball was held at the palace on the evening of 
July thirteenth. Next day, as if in answer 
to rulers who could dance while the people 
starved, the mob in Paris stormed the prison 
of the Bastille and captured that stronghold 
of royal tyranny. 



238 LAFAYETTE 

The storm had broken at last. The Duke de 
la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt hurried to Ver- 
sailles, entered the King's chamber, and told 
hmi the news, "Why," exclauned Louis 
XVL, "this is a revolt!" 

" No, sire," answered the Duke, " it is a 
revolution! " 

Next morning the Marshal de Broglie, who 
found that instead of a competent army, he 
had only a few disorganized troops at his com- 
mand, resigned. The King, seeing his army 
melting away, decided that his only chance of 
restoring order lay in making friends with 
the Assembly, and appeared before it, begging 
it to aid him, and promising to recall the dis- 
missed ministers. 

The Assembly, delighted at this evidence of 
its power, agreed to aid the King, and sent 
Lafayette, with fifty other deputies, to see 
what could be done to quiet the people in Paris. 
They found the city in the wildest confusion. 
Shops were closed, barricades blocked the 
streets, and gangs of ruffians were fighting 
everyivhere. The deputies brought some order, 
Lafayette made a speech to the people at the 
Hotel de Ville, and told them that the Assem- 



I 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 239 

bly was glad that they had won liberty. Then 
it was decided that a mayor must be chosen to 
govern Paris and a National Guard formed 
to preserve order. Moreau de Saint Mery, 
who was presiding, pointed to the bust of La- 
fayette that the State of Virginia had sent to 
the city of Paris. His gesture was understood 
and Lafayette was immediately chosen to com- 
mand the National Guard. Bailly was by a 
like unanimous vote elected mayor. 

So, at thirty-two, Lafayette gave up his seat 
in the National Assembly and became Com- 
mander of the National Guard. 

The deputies, on their return to Versailles, 
told their fellow-members that the only way in 
which confidence could be restored in the crown 
was for the King personally to visit Paris. 
This Louis XVI. agreed to do on July seven- 
teenth. In the meantime Lafayette had col- 
lected the nucleus of a guard, had restored 
some sort of order, and made arrangements to 
receive the King. When Louis arrived at the 
city gates he was met by the mayor, Bailly, who 
handed him the keys of Paris, saying, " They 
are the same keys that were presented to 
Henry IV. He had reconquered his people; 



240 LAFAYETTE 

now it is tHe people who have reconquered 
their king." 

The King was escorted to the Hotel de Ville 
through a double line of National Guards. 
There he was given the new national cockade, 
which he fixed in his hat. Afterward speeches 
were made and then King Louis rode back to 
Versailles. He was still the sovereign in 
name, but his real power was gone, shorn from 
him by the obstinacy of his nobles and him- 
self. 

Lafayette had no easy task in keeping order 
in Paris. His Guards obeyed his commands, 
but many of the mob, having tasted revolt, con- 
tinued on a wild course, and they were now 
joined by many of the worst element from the 
provinces. Two innocent men were murdered 
in spite, and Lafayette could do nothing to 
prevent it. Disgusted at the trend of events 
he soon resigned his office of Commander, but 
since no one else appeared able to fill it he 
finally consented to resume it. 

Meantime the Assembly was uprooting the 
old feudal laws and doing away with almost 
all forms of taxation. Their object was to 
tear down, not to build up ; and the result was 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 241 

that in a very short time people throughout 
France were making their own laws in every 
city and village and paying no attention to the 
needs of the nation. 

As autumn approached the population of 
Paris became restless. The Assembly at Ver- 
sailles was not sufficiently under the people's 
thumb, the lower classes especially were eager 
tp get both Assembly and King and Queen in 
their power. A reception given by Louis to 
the National Guards at Versailles roused great 
indignation. The court, so the people said, 
was as frivolous and extravagant as ever, and 
was trying to win the Guards over to its side. 
The excitement reached its climax when, on 
October fifth, Maillard, a leader of the mob, 
called on the people of Paris to march to Ver- 
sailles. At once the cry "To Versailles!" 
echoed through the city, and men and women 
flocked to answer the cry. 

Lafayette heard of the plan and sent 
couriers to Versailles to warn the King and the 
Assembly of what was in the air. All day he 
tried his best to quiet the people and induce 
them to give up the march. He forbade the 
National Guards to leave their posts, and at 



242 LAFAYETTE 

first they obeyed hiiii. But presently deputa- 
tion after deputation came to him. " Gen- 
eral," said one of his men, " we do not think 
you a traitor; but we think the government 
betrays you. It is time that this end. We 
cannot turn our bayonets against women cry- 
ing to us for bread. The people are miser- 
able ; the source of the mischief is at Versailles ; 
we must go seek the King and bring him to 
Paris." 

That was the view of the Guards, and it 
grew more and more positive. Armed crowds 
were leaving the city, dragging cannon, and at 
last the Guards surrounded their commander 
and declared their intention to march and to 
take him with them. So finally Lafayette set 
out for Versailles, preceded and followed by 
an immense rabble of men and women. 

Meantime the couriers sent by Lafayette to 
Versailles had reported the news of the march 
of the mob. The Assembly could think of 
nothing that would pacify the people, and 
contented itself with sending messengers 
to the King, who happened to be hunting in 
the Versailles forests. Louis returned to his 
palace to find his body-guards, the Swiss and 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 243 

the Flanders Regiment, drawn up in the court- 
yards as though to withstand a siege. 

In the middle of the afternoon the first crowd 
of women, led by Maillard beating his drum, 
arrived at Versailles. Some marched to the 
Assembly and shouted to the deputies to pass 
laws at once that should lower the price of 
bread. Others paraded through the streets, 
and still others went to the palace to see the 
King, who received them very kindly and tried 
to assure them that he entirely agreed with all 
their wishes. 

But the royal family had taken alarm and 
wanted to fly from the palace. Their carriages 
were ordered out, and the body-guards placed 
in readiness to serve as escort. This plan be- 
came known, however, and when the carriages 
drove out from the great stables some of the 
National Guards themselves seized the horses' 
heads and turned them back. 

The National Assembly itself was in an 
uproar. The President, Mounier, left the 
chamber to see the King, and when he came 
back he found a fat fishwoman making a 
speech to the crowd from his own chair. The 
Assembly had taken power and authoritjr 



244 LAFAYETTE 

away from the King; now the mob was bent on 
doing the same thing to the Assembly. 

At eleven o'clock that evening Lafayette 
reached Versailles with his National Guards 
and the rest of the rabble from Paris. On the 
way he had tried to curb the rougher part of 
the crowd and had made his troops stop and 
renew their oaths of allegiance " to the nation, 
the law, and the King." He went at once to 
the palace to receive King Louis' orders, but 
the Swiss guards would not let him enter until 
he agreed to go in without any of the people 
from Paris. When he did enter he found the 
halls and rooms filled with courtiers. One of 
them, seeing him, exclaimed, " Here is Crom- 
well ! " Lafayette answered instantly, " Crom- 
well would not have entered alone." 

The King received him cordially, and told 
him to guard the outside of the palace, leaving 
the inside to the protection of the royal body- 
guards. Lafayette then saw that his men 
were bivouacked for the night, quieted noisy 
marchers, and felt that, at least for the time, 
Versailles was at rest. Worn out with the 
day's exertions the Marquis finally got a chance 
to sleep. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 245 

Early next day, however, the mob burst 
forth again. A crowd fell to disputing with 
the royal body-guards at one of the gates to the 
palace, rushed the soldiers, and broke into the 
inner court. Up the stairs they streamed, 
killing the guards that tried to oppose them. 
Marie Antoinette had barely time to fly from 
her room to that of the King before the rioters 
reached her apartment, crying out threats 
against her. 

As soon as he heard of all this Lafayette 
sent two companies of soldiers to clear the mob 
from the palace. When he arrived himself he 
found the people all shouting "To Paris!" 
He saw at once that his National Guards were 
not to be trusted to oppose the crowd, and 
urged the King to agree to go to Paris. Louis 
consented, and Lafayette went out on the bal- 
cony and announced the King's decision. 

This appeased the throng somewhat, and 
Lafayette asked the King to appear on the 
balcony with him. Louis stepped out and was 
greeted with cheers of "" Vive le roi ! " Then 
Lafayette said to the Queen, " What are your 
intentions, madame? " 

" I know the fate which awaits me," an- 



246 LAFAYETTE 

swered Marie Antoinette, " but my duty is to 
die at the feet of the King and in the arms of 
my children." 

" Well, madame, come with me," said La- 
fayette. 

"What! Alone on the balcony? Have 
you not seen the signs which have been made 
to me? " 

" Yes, madame, but let us go." 

Marie Antoinette agreed, and stepped out 
with her children. The crowd cried, " No chil- 
dren ! " and they were sent back. The mob 
was making too much noise for Lafayette to 
speak to them, so instead he took the Queen's 
hand, and, bowing low, kissed it. The crowd, 
always ready to go from one extreme to an- 
other, immediately set up shouts of " Long live 
the General ! Long live the Queen ! " 

King Louis then asked Lafayette about the 
safety of his body-guards. Lafayette stuck a 
tricolor cockade in the hat of one of these sol- 
diers, and taking him on to the balcony, em- 
braced him. The mob's answer was cheers of 
" Vive les gardes du corps ! '' 

So peace was restored for the time. Fifty 
thousand people marched back to Paris, the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 247 

King and the royal family in their carriage, 
Lafayette riding beside them. Close to them 
marched the royal body-guards, and close to 
the latter came the National Guards. And the 
crowd shouted with exultation at having forced 
their sovereign to do their will. 

At the gates of the city the mayor met the 
procession and made a patriotic address. 
From there they went to the Hotel de Ville, 
where more speeches were made, and it was late 
in the day before Louis XVI. and Marie 
Antoinette and their children were allowed to 
take refuge in the Palace of the Tuileries. 

Lafayette, who had played with the Queen 
and her friends in the gardens at Versailles 
when he was a boy, had stood by her loyally on 
that day when the mob had vowed vengeance 
against her. He believed in liberty and con- 
stitutional government, but he also believed in 
order. He wanted to protect the weak and 
defenseless, and he hated the excesses of the 
mob. He thought he could reproduce in 
France what he had seen accomplished in 
America. But conditions were too different. 
The people of France had been ground down 
too long by their nobles. Their first taste of 



248 LAFAYETTE 

liberty had gone to their heads like strong 
\\ine. So, lilve a boat that has lost its rudder, 
the ship of state of France plunged on to the 
whirlpool of the French Revolution. 



XIII 

STORM-CLOUDS OF THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION 

King Louis XVI., Queen Marie Antoinette, 
and their children were now virtually prisoners 
in the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris, the 
nobles were leaving France for their own 
safety, and the Assembly was trying to govern 
the country. But the Assembly was very 
large and unwieldy, and its members were more 
interested in making speeches denouncing the 
present laws than in trying to frame new ones. 
Lafayette was commander of the National 
Guard, and so in a way the most powerful man 
in France, although the most able statesman 
and leader was Mirabeau. Occasionally La- 
fayette found time to attend the meetings of 
the Assembly, and at one of these sessions a 
deputy demanded that all titles of nobility 
should be abolished. Another member ob- 
jected, saying that merit ought to be recog- 
nized, and asking what could be put in the 



250 LAFAYETTE 

place of the words, " Such a one has been made 
noble and count for having saved the State on 
such a day." 

Lafayette rose at once to answer. " Sup- 
press the words * made noble and count/ " 
said he; "say only, * Such a one saved the 
State on such a day.' It seems to me that 
these words have something of an American 
character, precious fruit of the New World, 
which ought to aid much in rejuvenating the 
old one." 

The measure was carried immediately, and 
Lafayette dropped from his name both the 
" marquis " and the " de." He never used 
them again; and when, after the French Revo- 
lution was over, all titles were restored, Lafay- 
ette, steadfast to his convictions, never called 
himself or allowed himself to be addressed as 
the Marquis de Lafayette, but was always 
known simply as General Lafayette. 

Lafayette did all he could to ease the diffi- 
cult position of King Louis, though relations 
between the two men were necessarily strained, 
since the King could hardly look with pleasure 
on the commander of the National Guard, who 
held his office from the Assembly and people 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 251 

and not from the crown. Louis chafed at 
having to stay in the Tuileries and wanted to 
go hunting in the country, but the people 
would not allow this. And it fell to Lafay- 
ette to urge the King to show as little discon- 
tent as possible, which naturally made the 
sovereign resentful toward the General. 

During the winter of 1789-90 Lafayette was 
busy trying to keep order in Paris and drill- 
ing the Guard. He sent the Duke of Orleans, 
who had been stirring up the worst elements 
to dethrone Louis XVI. and make him king 
instead, in exile from the country. Violent 
bread riots broke out and mobs tried to pillage 
the convents, but Lafayette and his Guards 
prevented much damage being done. It took 
all his tact and perseverance to handle these 
soldiers under his command; they were quick- 
tempered and restive under any authority, and 
only too ready to follow the last excitable 
speaker they had heard. Lafayette said to his 
officers, " We are lost if the service continues 
to be conducted with such great inexactitude. 
We are the only soldiers of the Revolution; we 
alone should defend the royal family from 
every attack; we alone should establish the lib- 



252 LAFAYETTE 

erty of the representatives of the nation; we 
are the only guardians of the public treasury. 
France, all Europe, have fixed their eyes on 
the Parisians. A disturbance in Paris, an at- 
tack made through our negligence on these 
sacred institutions, would dishonor us forever, 
and bring upon us the hatred of the provinces." 

He did not want any great office or power 
for himself, his desires were always very much 
like those of George Washington, he simply 
wanted to serve the sacred cause of liberty. 
Yet he was at that time the most powerful and 
the most popular man in France. The court, 
though it disliked him as the representative of 
the people, depended on him for its personal 
safety. The Assemblj^ relied on him as its 
guardian, the soldiers trusted him as their 
commander, and the people considered him 
their bulwark against any return to the old 
despotism. 

Through all this time he wrote regularly to 
Washington, and when, by his orders, the 
Bastille was torn down he sent the keys of the 
fortress to his friend at Mount Vernon. The 
keys were sent, he wrote, as a tribute from " a 
son to an adopted father, an aide-de-camp to 



I 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 253 

his general, a missionary of liberty to her 
patriarch." 

On the first anniversary of the storming of 
the Bastille, July 14,1790, a great celebration 
was held in Paris. A vast crowd of more than 
three hmidred thousand persons, including the 
court, the Assembly, the National Guard, and 
men from the provinces as well as from the 
city, met in the amphitheatre of the Champs de 
Mars to swear obedience to the new constitu- 
tion which was to govern them all. First 
Louis XVI. took the oath, and then Lafayette, 
who was made for that day commander-in- 
chief of all the armed forces of France, stepped 
forward, placed the point of his sword on the 
altar, and took the oath as the representative 
of the French people. A great roar of voices 
greeted the commander's words. 

But although Lafayette meant to remain 
faithful to the principles of a constitutional 
monarchy, the mass of his countrymen soon 
showed that they had no such intention. Dis- 
order and rioting grew more frequent, the peo- 
ple demanded more of the Assembly than the 
latter felt it could grant, the Guards grew in- 
creasingly unpopular as the symbol of a law 



254. LAFAYETTE 

and order the mob did not like. Within the 
Assembly itself there were many quarrels and 
wrangles; sometimes the mob vented its feel- 
ings on an unpopular member by attacking his 
house. And as often as not the National 
Guards, when they were sent to protect prop- 
erty, joined with the crowd and helped to 
destroy it instead. 

In February, 1791, a crowd from Paris at- 
tacked the fortress of Vincennes, which had 
once been a state prison, but had been unused 
for some time. Lafayette, with his staff and 
a considerable number of National Guards, 
marched out to the place, quelled the disturb- 
ance, and arrested sixty of the ringleaders. 
When he brought his prisoners back to the 
city he found the gates of the Faubourg St. 
Antoine closed against him, and he had to 
threaten to blow the gates open with cannon 
before the people would allow him to enter. 
All the way to the Conciergerie, where he took 
his prisoners, the General and his soldiers were 
targets for the abuse of the crowds. 

On the same day some of the nobles who 
lived in the neighborhood of the royal palace 
of the Tuileries, hearing of the attack at Vin- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 255 

cennes, thought that the King might also be in 
danger, and went to the palace, armed with 
pistols and daggers. This angered the Na- 
tional Guards who were posted about the 
Tuileries and who thought that the noblemen 
were poaching on their territory. The King 
had to appear in person to settle the dispute, 
and even then some of the nobles were mal- 
treated by the soldiers. Immediately revolu- 
tionary orators made use of the incident to 
inflame the people's mind, representing that 
the King's friends had planned to murder of- 
ficers of the Guards. 

It was clear that the National Guards were 
growing less and less trustworthy, and equally 
evident that the people of Paris were becoming 
more and more hostile to their King. Louis 
disliked staying at the Tuileries, where he was 
constantly under the eyes of enemies, and at 
Easter decided to go to the palace of St. Cloud, 
which was near Paris, and celebrate the day 
there. Word of this got abroad, and the peo- 
ple grumbled; more than that they said that 
Louis should not go to St. Cloud. 

On the morning of April eighteenth the 
King and his family entered their traveling- 



256 LAFAYETTE 

carriage, only to have an angry crowd seize the 
horses' heads and forbid the King to move. 
Louis appealed to the National Guards who 
were in attendance, but the soldiers took the 
side of the people and helped to block the way. 
The mob swarmed close to the carriage, in- 
sulting the King and his servants. Louis had 
courage. He put his head out at the window 
and cried, " It would be an astonishing thing, 
if, after having given liberty to the nation, I 
myself should not be free! " 

At this point Lafayette and the mayor, 
Bailly, arrived, and urged the mob and the 
Guards to keep the peace and disperse. The 
crowd was obstinate ; most of the Guards were 
openly rebellious. Then Lafayette went to 
the royal carriage, and offered to use force to 
secure the King's departure if Louis would 
give the word. The King answered promptly, 
"It is for you, sir, to see to what is necessary 
for the due fulfilment of your constitution." 
Again Lafayette turned to the mob and ad- 
dressed it, but it showed no intention of obey- 
ing his orders, and at last he had to tell Louis 
that it would be dangerous for him to drive 
forth. So the King and his family returned to 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 257 

the Tuileries, fully aware now that they were 
prisoners of the people and could not count on 
the protection of the troops. 

Everywhere it was now said that the King 
must obey " the supreme will of the people." 
Louis protested; he went to the National As- 
sembly and told the deputies that he expected 
them to protect his liberty; but Mirabeau, the 
leader who had used his influence on behalf of 
the sovereign in earlier meetings, was dead, 
and the party of Robespierre held the upper 
hand. The Assembly had no intention of op- 
posing the people, and paid little heed to the 
King's demands. 

Lafayette saw that a general whose troops 
would not obey him was a useless officer, and 
sent in his resignation as commander of the 
Guards. But the better element in Paris 
wanted him to stay, and the more loyal of the 
troops begged him to resume his command. 
No one could fill his place, and so he agreed 
to take the office again. He went to the Com- 
mune of Paris and addressed its members. 
" We are citizens, gentlemen, we are free," 
said he; "but without obedience to the law, 
there is only confusion, anarchy, despotism; 



258 LAFAYETTE 

and if this capital, the cradle of the Revolution, 
instead of surrounding with intelligence and 
respect the depositaries of national power, 
should besiege them with tumult, or fatigue 
them with violence, it would cease to be the ex- 
ample of Frenchmen, it would risk becoming 
their terror." 

The Commune applauded his words, and he 
went forth again as Commander-in-chief, the 
Guards taking a new oath to obey the laws. 
But at the same time the Jacobins, or revolu- 
tionaries, placarded the walls of Paris with 
praises of the soldiers who had rebelled and 
feasted them as models of patriotism. 

Meantime King Louis and his closest 
friends determined that the royal family must 
escape from the Tuileries. Careful plans were 
laid and a number of the nobles were told of 
them. Rumors of the intended escape got 
abroad, but such rumors had been current for 
the past year. Lafayette heard them and 
spoke of them to the King, who assured him 
that he had no such design. Lafayette went 
to the mayor, Bailly, and the two men dis- 
cussed the rumor, concluding that there was 
nothing more to it than to the earlier stories. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 259 

The night of June twentieth was the time 
chosen by the King and his intimate friends. 
Marie Antoinette placed her children in the 
care of Madame de Tourzel, her companion, 
saying, " The King and I, madame, place in 
your hands, with the utmost confidence, all 
that we hold dear in the world. Everything 
is ready; go." Madame de Tourzel and the 
children went out to a carriage, driven by the 
Count de Fersen, and rode along the quays to 
a place that had been decided on as the rendez- 
vous. 

Lafayette and Bailly had spent the evening 
with the King. As soon as they had gone, to 
disarm suspicion Louis undressed and got into 
bed. Then he got up again, put on a disguise, 
and walked down the main staircase and out 
at the door. He reached his carriage, and 
waited a short time for the Queen, who pres- 
ently joined him; and then the royal couple 
drove out of Paris. 

The flight was not discovered until about 
six o'clock in the morning. Then Lafayette 
hurried to the Tuileries with Bailly. He 
found that a mob had already gathered there, 
vowing vengeance on all who had had charge 



260 LAFAYETTE 

of the King. With difficulty he rescued the 
officer who had been on guard the night before. 
He sent messengers in every direction with 
orders to stoj) the royal fugitives. He went to 
the Assembly, and addressed it. At the 
Jacobin Club, Danton, the fiery orator, de- 
clared, " The commander-general promised on 
his head that the King would not depart, 
therefore we must have the person of the King 
or the head of Monsieur the commander-gen- 
eral ! " But Lafayette's reputation was still 
too gTeat for him to be reached by his enemies. 

The unfortunate royal family were finally 
arrested at Varennes and brought back to 
Paris. Louis was received in an ominous 
silence by his people. Lafayette met him at 
the gates and escorted him back to the palace. 
There Lafayette said, " Sire, your Majesty is 
acquainted with my personal attachment; but 
I have not allowed you to be unaware that if 
you separated your cause from that of the peo- 
ple I should remain on the side of the people." 

" That is true," answered King Louis. 
" You have acted according to your prin- 
ciples; it is an affair of party. At present, 
here I am. I will tell you frankly, that up to 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 261 

these last days, I believed myself to be in a 
vortex of people of your opinion with whom 
you surrounded me, but that it was not the 
o])inion of France. I have thoroughly recog- 
nized in this journey that I was mistaken, and 
that this opinion is the general one." 

When Lafayette asked the King for his 
orders, the latter laughed and said, " It seems 
to me that I am more at your orders than you 
are at mine." 

The commander did all that he could to 
soften the hard position of the royal captives, 
but he took care to see that the Tuileries was 
better guarded after that. 

Some Jacobins now petitioned the Assembly 
to dethrone the King, and a great meeting was 
held in the Champs de Mars on the seventeenth 
of July. As usual the meeting got out of hand 
and the mob turned to murder and pillage. 
Lafayette and Bailly rode to the field with 
some of their soldiers ; Bailly proclaimed mar- 
tial law and ordered the crowd to disperse. 
Jeers and threats followed, and at last Lafay- 
ette had to give his men the command to fire. 
A dozen of the mob were killed, and the rest 
took to flight. 



262 LAFAYETTE 

This seemed to bring peace again, but it was 
only the quiet that precedes the thunder-storm. 
The Assembly finished its work on the new 
constitution for France and the King signed it. 
Then Lafayette, tired with his constant labors, 
resigned his commission and stated his inten- 
tion of retiring to private life. Paris voted 
him a medal and a marble statue of Washing- 
ton, and the National Guards presented him 
with a sword forged from the bolts of the 
Bastille. At last he rode back to his country 
home at Chavaniac, looking forward to rest 
there as Washington looked for rest at his be- 
loved Mount Vernon. 

To friends at his home in Auvergne the 
General said, " You see me restored to the 
place of my birth; I shall leave it only to de- 
fend or consolidate our common liberty, if at- 
tacked, and I hope to remain here for long." 
He believed that the new constitution would 
bring liberty and peace to his country. But 
the French Revolution had only begun its 
course, and he was destined soon to be called 
back to its turmoil. 

He had several months of rest in his home 
in the mountains, happy months for his wife, 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 268 

who for two years had hardly ever seen her 
husband leave their house in Paris without 
fearing that he might not return. She had 
been a wonderful helpmate for the General 
during the turbulent course of events since his 
return from America and had loyally enter- 
tained the guests of every varying shade of 
political opinion who had flocked to his house 
in the capital. But she liked to have her hus- 
band away from the alarms of Paris and safe 
in the quiet of his country home at Chavaniac. 
There he had more time to spend with her and 
their three children, Anastasie, George Wash- 
ington, and Virginia, who had been named 
after the State where her father had won his 
military laurels. 

The Legislative Assembly of France, which 
was trying to govern the country under the 
new constitution, was finding the making of 
laws which should satisfy every one a very 
difficult task. There were countless cliques 
and parties, and each had its own pet scheme 
for making the land a Utopia. The court 
party hoped that the more reckless element 
would lose all hold on the people through its 
very extravagance, and so actually encouraged 



264 LAFAYETTE 

many wildly absurd projects. The royalists 
were always expecting that a counter-revolu- 
tion would bring them back into power, and 
the nobles who had left the countrj^ filled the 
border-towns and plotted and conspired and 
used their influence to induce foreign sover- 
eigns to interfere and restore the old order in 
France. Naturally enough news of these plots 
and conspiracies did not tend to make King 
Louis or his nobles any more popular with the 
lawgivers in Paris. 

In August, 1791, the King of Prussia 
and the Emperor of Austria met the Count 
d'Artois and the Marquis de Bouille at the 
toAvn of Pilnitz and formed an alliance against 
France, making the cause of Louis XVI. their 
own. The royalists who had emigrated were 
delighted, and filled Europe with statements 
of what they meant to do to the revolutionary 
leaders when they won back their power. The 
revolutionists grew more and more angry, and 
as they saw foreign troops gathering on the 
French frontiers they decided that it was high 
time to oppose force with force. Narbonne, 
the Minister of War, announced that the King 
and ffovermiient meant to form three armies 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 265 

of fifty thousand men each, and that the coun- 
try had chosen as commanding generals Ro- 
chambeau, Luckner, and Lafayette. 

Lafayette at once returned to Paris from 
Chavaniac, paid his respects to the King, and 
going to the Assembly thanked the members 
for his new appointment and declared his un- 
alterable devotion to the maintenance and de- 
fense of the constitution. The president of 
the Assembly answered that " the French peo- 
ple, which has sworn to conquer or to die in the 
cause of liberty, will always confidently present 
to nations and to tyrants the constitution and 
Lafayette." 

In view of what happened afterward it is 
important to remember that Lafayette ac- 
cepted his appointment under the constitution 
of France and that he felt himself bound to 
support and obey it under all circumstances. 

Then he departed from Paris for the 
frontier, the cheers of the people and the Na- 
tional Guards ringing in his ears. He was 
popular with all parties except those of the 
two extremes, the friends of the King con- 
sidering him a rebel and the Jacobins calling 
him a courtier. 



200 LAFAYETTE 

At Metz Lafayette met Rochambeau, 
Luckner, and Narbonne, and it was arranged 
that the three generals should make their head- 
quarters at Liege, Treves, and Coblentz. 
News of these military measures somewhat 
cooled the ardor of the alliance against France 
and enemy troops stopped collecting along the 
border. Lafayette took advantage of this to 
prepare his raw recruits for a possible struggle. 
They needed this preparation, for the army of 
France, which had once been the proudest in 
Europe, had been allowed to scatter during the 
past few years. 

He accomplished much in the way of dis- 
cipline, was called to Paris to consult on a 
plan of campaign, found the leaders there as 
much at odds as ever, and returned to his post 
at Metz. Again the emigrant nobles and their 
allies were uttering threats against the French 
government, and finally, on April 20, 1792, 
the government declared war on its enemies. 

Lafayette's orders were to proceed against 
the Netherlands, marching from Metz to Givet, 
and thence to Namur. Meantime Rocham- 
beau's army was to attack the Austrians. But 
there was so much discord among Rocham- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 267 

beau's divisions that the attack turned into a 
retreat, and Lafayette, learning this when he 
arrived at Givet, was obliged to wait there in- 
stead of marching farther. The conduct of 
his soldiers so discouraged Rochambeau that 
he resigned his commission and the territory to 
be defended was divided between Lafayette 
and Luckner. The former concentrated his 
troops at Maubeuge, and spent the month of 
May drilling and occasionally making sorties. 
In Paris the cause of law and order was hav- 
ing a hard time. The Jacobins wanted to 
upset the constitution, dethrone the King, and 
establish a republic, and they were steadily 
growing stronger. The spirit of revolution 
was spreading through the country, and every- 
where the people gave the greatest applause 
to the most revolutionary orators. The As- 
sembly was treating Louis XVI. with insolence 
and the King was retaliating by regarding the 
deputies with unconcealed contempt. The 
monarchy and the constitution were fast fall- 
ing to pieces, and the news of the defeat of the 
army on the frontier helped to hasten the 
climax. Gouverneur Morris wrote to Thomas 
Jefferson in June, 1792, " The best picture I 



268 LAFAYETTE 

can give of the French people is that of cattle 
before a thunder-storm." And a week later 
he wrote, "We stand on a vast volcano; we 
feel it tremble and we hear it roar; but how 
and where and when it will burst, and who may 
be destroyed by its irruption, are beyond the 
ken of mortal foresight to discover." 

Lafayette, in camp at Maubeuge, alarmed 
at the reports from Paris, felt that the cause 
of liberty and order would be lost unless some 
effective blow could be dealt at the power of 
the Jacobins. If some one would take the lead 
in opposing that group, or club, he believed 
that the Assembly and the rest of the people 
would follow. So he wrote a letter to the 
Assembly, and in this he said, " Can you hide 
from yourselves that a faction, and, to avoid 
vague terms, the Jacobite faction, has caused 
all these disorders? It is this club that I 
openly accuse." Then he went on to denounce 
the Jacobins as the enemies of all order. 

When the letter was read in the Assembly 
the Jacobins attacked it furiously, charging 
that the General wanted to make himself a 
dictator. His friends supported him, but the 
Jacobins were the more powerful. Through 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 269 

their clubs, their newspapers, and their street 
orators they soon led the fickle people to be- 
lieve that Lafayette, their idol of a few years 
before, ^^^as now a traitor to them and their 
greatest enemy. 

Another quarrel arose between King Louis 
and the Assembly, and the former dismissed his 
ministers. The Jacobins seized on this to in- 
augurate a reign of terror. The streets were 
filled with mobs, passionate orators harangued 
the crowds, men and women pushed their way 
into the meetings of the Assembly and told the 
deputies what they wanted done. June twen- 
tieth was the anniversary of the Tennis Court 
Oath, and on that day a great rabble invaded 
the Assembly, denounced the King, and then 
marched to the Tuileries, where it found that 
the gates had been left open. The mob surged 
through the palace, singing the revolutionary 
song '' Ca iraf and shouting " Down with the 
Austrian woman! Down with Marie An- 
toinette!" The Queen and her children fled 
to an inner room, protected by a few gTenadiers. 
The King watched the crowd surge by him, his 
only concession to their demands being to put 
a liberty cap on his head. After three hours 



270 LAFAYETTE 

of uproar the leaders felt that Louis had been 
taught a sufficient lesson and led their noisy 
followers back to the streets. 

A story is told that a young and penniless 
lieutenant by the name of Napoleon Bona- 
parte was dining with a friend in the Palais 
Royal when the mob attacked the Tuileries. 
Taking a position on the bank of the Seine 
he watched the scene with indignation. Wlien 
he saw the King at the window with the red 
liberty cap on his head, he exclaimed, " Why 
have they let in all that rabble? They should 
sweep off four or five hundred of them with 
cannon; the rest would then set off fast 
enough." But the time had not yet come for 
this lieutenant to show how to deal with the 
people. 

Lafayette heard of the mob's invasion of the 
Tuileries and decided to go to Paris to see 
what he could do to check the spirit of revolu- 
tion. General Luckner had no objection to 
his leaving his headquarters at Maubeuge, but 
warned him that if the Jacobins once got him 
in their power they would cut off his head. 
Undaunted by this idea Lafayette went to the 
capital, and aiTived at the house of his friend 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 271 

La Rochefoucauld, entirely unexpected, on the 
twenty-eighth of June. 

His visit caused great excitement. He 
went to the Assembly and made a stirring 
speech in which he said that the violence com- 
mitted at the Tuileries had roused the indigna- 
tion of all good citizens. His words were 
cheered by the more sober deputies, but the 
Jacobins protested loudly. One of the latter 
asked how it happened that General Lafayette 
was allowed to leave his army to come and 
lecture the Assembly on its duties. The Gen- 
eral's speech had some influence in restoring 
order, but the power of the Jacobins was stead- 
ily increasing. 

Lafayette then went to the Tuileries, where 
he saw the royal family. Louis was ready to 
receive any assurance of help that the General 
could give him, for the King saw now that his 
only reliance lay in the constitution he had 
signed, and felt that might prove a slight sup- 
port. Marie Antoinette, however, refused to 
forgive Lafayette for the part he had taken in 
the early days of revolution, and would have 
no aid at his hands. 

When he left the Tuileries some of his for- 



272 LAFAYETTE 

mer National Guards followed his carriage 
with shouts of " Vive Lafayette ! Down with 
the Jacobins ! " and planted a liberty pole be- 
fore his house. This gave Lafayette the idea 
of appealing to the ^vhole force of the National 
Guard and urging them to stand by the con- 
stitution. He asked permission to speak to 
them at a review the next day, but the mayor, 
fearing Lafayette's influence, countermanded 
the review. Then the General held meetings 
at his house and did all he could to persuade 
Guards and citizens to oppose the Jacobins, 
who, if they had their way, would, in his 
opinion, ruin the country. 

At the end of June he returned to the army. 
Daily he heard reports of the growing power 
of his enemies, the Jacobins. Then he re- 
solved to make one more attempt to save the 
King and the constitution. He received or- 
ders to march his troops by a town called La 
Capelle, which was about twenty miles from 
Compiegne, one of the King's country resi- 
dences. His plan was that Louis XVI. should 
go to the Assembly and declare his intention 
of passing a few days at Compiegne; there 
Lafayette's army would meet him, and the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 273 

King would proclaim that he was ready to send 
his troops against the enemies of France who 
had gathered on the frontiers and should re- 
affirm his loyalty to the constitution. The 
General thought that if the King would do this 
it would restore the confidence of the people in 
their sovereign. 

But neither the King nor the nobles who 
were with him at the Tuileries were attracted 
by this plan, which meant that Louis would 
openly declare his hostility toward those emi- 
grant nobles who had gathered on the borders. 
And when the Jacobins learned that Lafay- 
ette had been communicating secretly with the 
King they used this news as fresh fuel for 
their fire. So the result of the scheme was 
only to add to the currents of suspicion and in- 
trigue that were involving Paris in the gather- 
ing storm. 

The power of the Assembly grew weaker; 
its authority was more and more openly 
thwarted; the deputies wanted to stand by the 
constitution, but it appeared that the country 
did not care to live under its laws. The gov- 
ernment of Paris was now entirely under the 
control of the Jacobins. They filled the ranks 



274 LAFAYETTE 

of the National Guards with ruffians in their 
pay. On July fourteenth the King reviewed 
soldiers who were secretly ready to tear the 
crown from his head and was forced to listen 
to bitter taunts and jibes. 

Then, at the end of July, the allied armies 
of Austria and Prussia, accompanied by a 
great many French noblemen, crossed the 
frontier and began their heralded invasion. 
The general in command, the Duke of Bruns- 
wick, issued a proclamation calling on the peo- 
ple of Paris to submit to their king, and threat- 
ening all sorts of dire things if they persisted 
in their rebellion. The proclamation acted 
like tinder to powder. The invasion united all 
parties for the moment. If the Duke of 
Brunswick succeeded, no man who had taken 
part in the Revolution could think his life or 
property secure, and France would return to 
the old feudal despotism, made worse by its 
dependence on foreign armies. 

The people of Paris and of France de- 
manded immediate and vigorous action; the 
Assembly could not lead them, and the 
Jacobins seized their chance. Danton and his 
fellows addressed the crowds in the streets and 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 275 

told them that France would not be safe until 
the monarchy and the aristocracy had been ex- 
terminated. The people heard and believed, 
and by August first were ready to strike down 
any men their leaders pointed out to them. 

Danton and the Jacobins made their plans 
rapidly. They filled the floor and the galleries 
of the Assembly with men whose violent threats 
kept the deputies constantly in fear of physical 
force. They taught the people to hate all 
those who defended the constitution, and chief 
among the latter Lafayette, whom the Jacobins 
feared more than any other man in France. 
So gi'eat was their fury against him that 
Gouverneur Morris wrote to Jefferson at the 
beginning of August, " I verily believe that if 
M. de Lafayette were to appear just now in 
Paris unattended by his army, he would be 
torn in pieces." 

On August tenth the mob, armed with pikes, 
surrounded the Tuileries. The King looked 
out on a crowd made up of the most vicious 
elements of the city. He tried to urge the 
National Guards to protect him, but they were 
demoralized by the shouts of the throngs. 
Finally he decided to take refuge with the Na- 



276 LAFAYETTE 

tional Assembly, and with the Queen and their 
children succeeded in reaching the Assembly 
chamber. 

The Swiss guards at the Tuileries attempted 
to make some resistance, but the mob drove 
them from their posts and killed many of them. 
The reign of terror spread. Nobles or citi- 
zens who had opposed the Jacobins were 
hunted out and murdered. SVhen the As- 
sembly adjourned the deputies found armed 
bands at the doors, waiting to kill all those who 
were known to have supported the constitu- 
tion. 

Meantime the royal family had found the 
Assembly a poor refuge. A deputy had moved 
that the King be dethroned and a convention 
summoned to determine the future government 
of the country. The measure was instantly 
carried. Louis XVI. and his family were 
handed over to officers who took them to the 
Temple, which then became their prison. 

The Jacobins had won the day by force and 
violence. They formed a government called 
the " Commune of August 10th," filled it 
with their own men, drove all respectable sol- 
diers out of the National Guard and placed 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 277 

Jacobin pikemen in their places. All nobles 
and friends of the King who were found in 
Paris were thrown into the prisons, which were 
soon crammed. The Reign of Terror had be- 
gun in fact. Only a short time later the 
prisoners were being tried and sent to the 
guillotine. 

Lafayette heard of the events of August 
tenth and begged his troops to remain true to 
the King and the constitution. Then the 
Commune of Paris sent commissioners to the 
armies to announce the change of government 
and to demand allegiance to the Commune. 
Lafayette met the commissioners at Sedan, 
heard their statements, and declaring them the 
agents of a faction that had unlawfully seized 
on power, ordered them imprisoned. 

News of Lafayette's arrest of the commis- 
sioners added to the turmoil in Paris. Some 
Jacobins wanted to have him declared a traitor 
at once; others, however, feared that his in- 
fluence with the army might be too great for 
them to take such a step safely. But troops 
in the other parts of France had come over to 
the Commune, and so, on the nineteenth of 
August the Jacobin leaders felt their power 



278 LAFAYETTE 

strong enough to compel the Assembly to de- j 
clare Lafayette a traitor. I 

Lafayette now had to face a decision. 
France had declared for the Commune of 
Paris and overthrown King and constitution. 
He had three choices. He might accept the 
rule of the Jacobins and become one of their 
generals; he might continue to oppose them 
and probably be arrested by his own soldiers 
and sent to the guillotine; he might leave the 
country, seek refuge in some neutral land, and 
hope that some day he could again be of service 
to liberty in France. To accept the first 
course was impossible for him, because he had 
no confidence in Jacobin rule. To take the 
second would be useless. Therefore the third 
course was the one he decided on. 

He turned his troops over to other officers, 
and with a few friends, who, like himself, had 
been declared traitors because they had sup- 
ported the constitution, rode away from Sedan 
and crossed the border into Belgium at the 
little town of Bouillon. He was now an exile 
from his own country. The cause of liberty 
that he had fought so hard for had now be- 
come the cause of lawlessness. His dream of 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 279 

France, safe and prosperous under a constitu- 
tion like that of the young republic across the 
sea, had come to an end, at least for the time 
being. He could do nothing but wash his 
hands of the Reign of Terror that followed on 
the footsteps of the Revolution he had helped 
to start. 



I 



XIV 

LAFAYETTE IN PRISON AND EXILE 

Lafayette knew that he could expect to 
find no place of refuge on either side of the 
French frontier; on the one hand were the 
Jacobin soldiers of the Reign of Terror who 
held him to be a traitor, and on the other the ji 
emigrant noblemen and their allies who re- 
garded him as in large part responsible for all 
the troubles that had befallen Louis XVI. and 
his court. He had got himself into a position 
where both sides considered him an enemy; 
and his best course seemed to be to make his 
way to England and there take ship for Amer- 
ica, where he was always sure to meet a friendly 
welcome. 

Austrian and Prussian troops held the north- 
ern border of France and garrisoned the out- 
post towns of Belgium. Lafayette and his 
companions crossed the frontier on their road 
to Brussels, but were stopped at the town of 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 281 

Rochefort because they had no passports. 
One of the party, Bureaux de Pusy, rode to 
Namur, the nearest large town, to try to get 
the necessary papers, but when he told the 
officer in charge there that the passports were 
wanted for General Lafayette and several 
friends there was great commotion. " Pass- 
ports for Lafayette, the enemy of the King 
and of order! " the Austrian officer exclamied. 
Lafayette was too important a man to let 
escape in any such fashion. And at once the 
command was given to arrest the Frenchman 
and his companions. 

They were found at Liege and arrested. 
Lafayette protested that he and his friends 
were now non-combatants, and moreover were 
on neutral territory in Belgium. In spite of 
that they were held as prisoners, although a 
secret message was sent to Lafayette that he 
could have his freedom if he would forswear 
his republican principles and give certain in- 
formation about conditions in France. In- 
dignantly he refused to buy his liberty in any 
such wa}^ and then was sent to the Prussian 
fortress of Wesel on the Rhine. On the jour- 
ney there he was questioned several times about 



282 LAFAYETTE j 

1 
the French army he had commanded, but the 

haughty contempt with which he refused to 
make any answers quickly showed his captors 
the sort of man they had to deal with. At one 
town an officer of the Duke of Saxe Teschen 
came to him and demanded that Lafayette 
turn over to the Duke the treasure chest of his 
army that his enemies supposed he had taken 
with him. At first Lafayette thought the re- 
quest a joke; but when the demand was re- 
peated he turned on the officer. " I am to 
infer, then, that if the Duke of Saxe Teschen 
had been in my place, he would have stolen the 
military chest of the army?" said he. The 
officer backed out of the room in confusion, 
and afterward no one dared to doubt the 
Frenchman's honesty. 

The prison at Wesel was mean and un- 
healthy, and the cells so small and cold and 
damp that the prisoners suffered greatly. 
Yet to every protest of Lafayette the only an- 
swer vouchsafed was that he should have better 
treatment if he would tell his captors the mili- 
tary plans of the army of France. His reply 
was always the same, an indignant refusal. 
The Jacobins had declared him a traitor to the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 28a 

government of the Commune, but he never re- 
paid them by any treachery. 

The Prussians and Austrians, arch-enemies 
of liberty, felt that in Lafayette they had 
caught the chief apostle of freedom in all 
Europe, and for greater security they pres- 
ently moved him from the prison at Wesel to 
the stronger fortress at Magdeburg on the 
Elbe. There Lafayette had a cell about eight 
feet by four in size, under the outer rampart, 
never lighted by a ray of sun. Its walls were 
damp with mould, and two guards constantly 
watched the prisoner. Even the nobles in 
Paris, victims of the Terror, were treated 
better than the Prussians treated Lafayette. 
For five months he stayed there, with no chance 
for exercise or change, proof against every 
threat and bribe. Then the King of Prussia, 
seeing that he would soon have to make peace 
with France, and unwilling that this leader of 
liberty should be set free, decided to hand La- 
fayette and his comrades over to the Emperor 
of Austria, the bitterest foe of freedom and of 
France. 

So Lafayette and several of the others were 
secretly transferred across the frontier to the 



284 LAFAYETTE 

fortress of Olmutz, a town of Moravia in cen- 
tral Austria. Here they were given numbers 
instead of names, and only a few officials knew 
who the prisoners were or where they were 
kept. Lafayette practically disappeared, as 
many other famous prisoners had disappeared 
in Austrian dungeons. Neither his wife and 
friends in France nor Washington in America 
had any inkling of what had become of him. 

When he had first left France on his way 
to Brussels he had written to his wife at 
Chavaniac. " Whatever may be the vicissi- 
tudes of fortune, my dear heart," he said, " you 
know that my soul is not of the kind to give 
way ; but you know it too well not to have pity 
on the suffering that I experienced on leaving 
my country. . . . There is none among 
you who would wish to owe fortune to conduct 
contrary to my conscience. Join me in Eng- 
land; let us establish ourselves in America. 
We shall find there the liberty which exists no 
longer in France, and my tenderness will seek 
to recompense you for all the enjoyments you 
have lost." Later, in his first days in prison, 
he wrote to a friend in England, using a tooth- 
pick with some lemon juice and lampblack for 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 285 

pen and ink. " A prison," he said, " is the 
only proper place for me, and I prefer to suffer 
in the name of the despotism I have fought, 
than in the name of the people whose cause is 
dear to my heart, and which is profaned to-day 
by brigands." 

For as brigands he thought of Robespierre 
and his crew who were making of France a 
country of horror and fear. From time to 
time he had news of the execution in Paris of 
friends who had been very near and dear to 
him. When Louis XVI. was beheaded he 
wrote of it as " the assassination of the King, 
in which all the laws of humanity, of justice, 
and of national faith were trampled under 
foot." When his old friend La Rochefou- 
cauld had fallen at the hands of the Terror he 
said, " The name of my unhappy friend La 
Rochefoucauld ever presents itself to me. 
Ah, that crime has most profoundly wounded 
my heart! The cause of the people is not less 
sacred to me ; for that I would give my blood, 
drop by drop ; I should reproach myself every 
instant of my life which was not devoted to 
that cause; hut the charm is lost/' 

The lover of liberty saw anarchy in the land 



286 LAFAYETTE 

he had worked to set free; king, nobles and 
many citizens swept away by the fury of a 
mob that mistook violence for freedom. Few 
things are more bitter than for a man who has 
labored for a great cause to see that cause turn 
and destroy his ideals. 

Meantime Madame Lafayette was suffering 
also. She was arrested at the old castle of 
Chavaniac and for a time imprisoned, perse- 
cuted, and even threatened with death. The 
state had denounced Lafayette as an emigre, 
or runaway, and had confiscated all his prop- 
erty. Yet through all these trials his wife re- 
mained calm and determined, her one purpose 
being to learn where her husband was and 
secure his release if possible. She wrote to 
Washington, who was then the President of 
the United States, begging him to intercede 
for her husband, and when she finally managed 
to find out where Lafayette was imprisoned 
she urged the Austrians to allow her to share 
his captivity. 

The Emperor of Austria turned a deaf ear 
to all requests made on behalf of Lafayette. 
The United States, however, was able to do 
something for the man who had befriended it. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 287 

md deposited two thousand florins in Prussia, 
mbject to his order, and obtained permission 
3f the King of Prussia that Lafayette should 
be informed that his wife and children were 
alive. 

The prisoner might well have thought that 
his own family had shared the fate of so many 
of their relatives and friends. The name of 
Lafayette was no protection to them, rather 
an added menace in a land where the Jacobins 
held sway. On September 2, 1792, when the 
Reign of Terror was in full flood in Paris, 
Minister Roland ordered that Madame Lafay- 
ette should be arrested at Chavaniac. She 
was taken, with her aunt and her elder daugh- 
ter, who refused to leave her, as far as the town 
of Puy, but there she wrote such vigorous 
letters of protest to Roland and other officials 
that she was allowed to return to her home on 
parole. In October of the next year she was 
again arrested, this time under the new law 
that called for the arrest of all persons who 
might be suspected of hostility to the govern- 
ment, and now she was actually put into a 
country prison. In June, 1794, Robespierre's 
agents brought her to Paris, and she was im- 



288 LAFAYETTE 






prisoned in the College du Plessis, where her 1 
husband had gone to school as a boy. From 
there her next journey, according to the cus- 
tom of that time, would have been to the 
guillotine. 

At this point, however, Gouverneur Morris, 
the Minister of the United States, stepped 
upon the scene. He had already advanced 
Madame Lafayette large sums of money, when 
her property had been confiscated; now when 
he heard that she was to be condemned to the 
guillotine by the butchers of the Revolution 
he immediately bearded those butchers in their 
den. He wrote to the authorities, the Com- 
mittee of Safety, as the officials grotesquely 
called it, and told them that the execution of 
Madame Lafayette would make a very bad 
impression in America. 

The Committee of Safety were not disposed 
to listen to reason from any quarter. Yet, 
when they heard Gouverneur Morris say, " If 
you kill the wife of Lafayette all the enemies 
of the Republic and of popular liberty will re- 
joice; you will make America hostile, and 
justify England in her slanders against you," 
they hesitated and postponed ordering her 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 289 

execution. But, because of his protests against 
such violent acts of the Reign of Terror. 
Gouverneur Mon-is was sent bacli to America, 
on the ground that he had too much sympathy 
with the victims of " liberty! " 

jMadame Lafayette was brought into court, 
and the Committee of Safety did its best to 
insult her. Said the Chief Commissioner, " I 
have old scores against you. I detest you, 
your husband, and your name! " 

Madame Lafayette answered him fearlessly, 
" I shall always defend my husband; and as 
for a name— there is no wrong in that." 

"You are insolent!" shouted the Commis- 
sioner, and was about to order her execution 
when he remembered Morris's words and sent 
her back to her prison instead. 

With her husband in prison in Austria, her 
young children left unprotected and far away 
from her, the plight of Madame Lafayette was 
hard indeed. But she was very brave, though 
she knew that any day might take her to the 
scaffold. Almost all the old nobility were 
brave. While Robespierre and his rabble 
made liberty and justice a mockery the pris- 
oners maintained their old contempt for their 



I 



290 LAFAYETTE 

jailers and held their heads as high as in the 
old days when they had taken their pleasure at 
Versailles. 

On July 22, 1794, Madame Lafayette's 
grandmother, the Marechale de Noailles, her 
mother, the Duchess d'Ayen, and her sister, 
the Vicomtesse de Noailles, were beheaded by 
the guillotine, victims of the popular rage 
against all aristocrats. A few days later the; 
Reign of Terror came to a sudden end, the ; 
prey of the very excesses it had committed. 

The people were sick of blood; even the 
judges and executioners were weary. On 
July twenty-eighth Robespierre and his sup- 
porters were declared traitors and were carted 
off to the guillotine in their turn. The new 
revolution opened the prison doors to most of 
the captives, but it was not until February, 
1795, that Madame Lafayette obtained her 
freedom, and then it was largely owing to the 
efforts of the new Minister of the United 
States, James Monroe. At once she flew to 
her children, and sent her son George to 
America to be under the protection of Wash- 
ington. A friend had bought Chavaniac and 
gave it back to her, but another Reign of 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 291 

Terror seemed imminent and Madame Lafay- 
ette wanted to leave France. A passport was 
obtained for her, and with her daughters she 
went by sea to Hamburg. There the Amer- 
ican consul gave her another passport, made 
out in the name of " Madame Motier, of Hart- 
ford, in Connecticut." Then she went to Aus- 
tria and at Vienna presented herself to the 
grand chamberlain, the Prince of Rosemberg, 
who was an old acquaintance of her family. 
He took her to the Emperor, and from the 
latter she finally won permission to share her 
husband's captivity at Olmutz. 

Meantime Lafayette's health had suffered 
under his long imprisonment. In the dark 
damp fortress, deprived of exercise, of com- 
pany, of books, he had passed many weary 
days. But the Fourth of July he remem- 
bered as the birthday of American freedom and 
spent the hours recollecting the happy time he 
had known in the young republic across the 
Atlantic. 

At last his wife and daughters joined him 
in his prison and told him of what had hap- 
pened in France. Imprisonment was easier 
to bear now that his familv ^vas with him, but 



292 LAFAYETTE 

the confinement was hard on all of them, and 
presently the prison authorities, seeing Lafay- 
ette in need of exercise, gave him more liberty, 
allowing him to walk or ride each day, but 
always strongly guarded. 

His friends in America were not idle. 
Washington had earlier sent a letter to Prussia 
asking the liberation of Lafayette as a favor. 
But the prisoner had already been transferred 
to Austria. In May, 1796, Washington wrote 
to the Emperor of Austria, and the American 
Minister, John Jay, presented the letter. 
" Permit me only to submit to your Majesty's 
consideration," wrote Washington, " whether 
his long imprisonment and the confiscation of 
his estate and the indigence and dispersion of 
his family, and the painful anxieties incident 
to all these circumstances, do not form an as- 
semblage of sufferings which recommend him 
to the mediation of humanity. Allow me, sir, 
on this occasion, to be its organ ; and to entreat 
that he may be permitted to come to this coun- 
try, on such conditions and under such instruc- 
tions as your Majesty may think it expedient 
to prescribe." 

Austria, however, did not intend to release 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 293 

the prisoner. She had too much fear of him 
as a leader of liberty. When at an earlier 
time a friend of Lafayette had asked for his 
release an official of Frederick the Great had 
refused the request on the same ground that 
Austria's emperor now took. " Monsieur de 
Lafayette," said this official, " is too fanatic on 
the subject of liberty; he does not hide it; all 
his letters show it; he could not keep quiet, if 
out of prison. I saw him when he was here, 
and still remember a statement of his, which 
surprised me very much at that time: * Do you 
believe,' said he to me, * that I went to America 
to make a military reputation for myself? I 
went for the sake of liberty. When a man 
loves it, he can rest only when he has established 
it in his own country.' " 

Before Madame Lafayette had joined her 
husband in the prison at Olmutz a friend had 
tried to help the captive to escape. At the 
time the Austrian officials were allowing La- 
fayette a little more freedom, although he was 
practically never out of the watchful sight of 
guards. The friend was a young man who 
had come to Vienna to try to find out where 
the famous Frenchman was imprisoned, the 



294 LAFAYETTE 

young American, Francis Kinloch Huger, 
who, as a small boy, had stood in the doorway 
of his father's house in South Carolina at mid- 
night and helped to welcome Lafayette and 
his companions when they first reached Amer- 
ican soil. Francis Huger's father had been 
attached to Lafayette's command during the 
campaign in Virginia, and the son had re- 
tained so deep an admiration for his hero that 
he had come to Europe to help him if he could. 
After he had been in Vienna some time 
Francis Huger met a German physician. 
Doctor BoUman, who was as great an admirer 
of Lafayette as the young American. Boll- 
man said to Francis Huger, " Lafayette is in 
Olmutz," and then explained how he had 
found out the place where their hero was 
hidden. He had become acquainted with the 
physician who was visiting the Frenchman in 
prison, and had used this doctor, who knew 
nothing of his plans, as a go-between. By 
means of chemically-prepared paper and sym- 
pathetic ink he had actually communicated 
with Lafayette and had arranged a method of 
escape to be attempted some day when the 
prisoner was outdoors. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 295 

Francis Huger entered eagerly into the plot, 
and the two conspirators made ready their 
horses and signals and other preparations for 
escape. Lafayette had learned part of their 
plans. As he rode out one day in November, 
1794, accompanied by an officer and two sol- 
diers, his two friends were ready for him. La- 
fayette and the officer got out of the carriage 
to walk along the road. The carriage, with 
the two soldiers, drove on. When it was far 
ahead, Huger and BoUman, who had been 
watching from their saddles, charged on the 
officer, while Lafayette turned on the latter, 
snatched at his unsheathed sword, and tried to 
disarm him. 

The Austrian officer fought gamely, and 
while Huger held the horses Bollman ran to 
the aid of the Frenchman, whose strength had 
been sapped by his long imprisonment. The 
two soldiers, alarmed at the sudden assault, 
made no effort to help their officer, but drove 
away for aid. Meantime the officer was 
thro^^Ti to the ground and held there by Doctor 
Bollman. 

Francis Huger, holding the restive horses 
with one hand, helped to gag the Austrian 



296 LAFAYETTE 

officer with his handkerchief. Then one of 
the horses broke from his grasp and dashed 
away. BoUman thrust a purse full of money 
into Lafayette's hand, and, still holding the 
struggling Austrian, called to Lafayette in 
English, so that the officer should not imder- 
stand, " Get to Hoff ! Get to Hoff ! " 

Lafayette, who was very much excited, was 
too intent on escaping to pay special attention 
to Bollman's directions. He thought the 
latter was merely shouting, " Get off; get off! " 
and so, with the help of Francis Huger, he 
sprang to the saddle of the remaining horse and 
galloped away as fast as he could go. He did 
not take the road to Hoff, where his rescuers 
had arranged to have fresh horses waiting, but 
took another road which led to Jagerndorf on 
the German frontier. Before he reached 
Jagerndorf his horse gave out, and while he 
was trying to get a fresh mount he was rec- 
ognized, arrested, and taken back to his prison 
at Olmutz. 

So the attempted escape failed. Huger and 
Bollman were arrested while they were hunting 
for the lost Lafayette. They were thrown 
into prison, put in chains, and nearly starved 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 297 

to death. And for some time after that the 
officials made Lafayette's life in prison even 
more uncomfortable than it had been before. 

Fortunately neither Huger nor BoUman 
died in their Austrian prison. After eight 
months in their cells they were set free and 
sent out of the country. Both went to Amer- 
ica, where in time Doctor Bollman became a 
political adventurer and aided Aaron Burr in 
those schemes which ultimately brought Burr 
to trial for treason. Then Bollman might 
have been punished had not Lafayette remem- 
bered what he had done at Olmutz and begged 
President Jefferson to set him free. Francis 
Huger was among the Americans who wel- 
comed Lafayette to the United States in 1824. 

The Frenchman, however, had to continue 
in prison in Austria. After his wife and 
daughters joined him the imprisonment grew 
less hard. But after a time his daughters fell 
ill of prison-fever, and soon their mother was 
sick also. She appealed to the Emperor for 
permission to go to Vienna to see a doctor. 
The Emperor answered that she could go to 
Vienna " only on condition that you do not go 
back to Olmutz." 



298 LAFAYETTE 

SKe would not desert her husband. " I will 
never expose myself to the horrors of another 
separation from my husband," she declared; 
and so she and her daughters stayed Avith La- 
fayette, enduring all manner of privations and 
sufferings for his sake. 

The world, however, had not forgotten La- 
fayette. America worked constantly to free 
him, Washington and Jefferson and Jay, Mor- 
ris and Marshall and Monroe used all their in- 
fluence with Austria, but America was not 
loved in the tyrannical court of Vienna and the 
appeals of her statesmen passed unheeded. 
England was generous also toward the man 
who had once fought against her. The gen- 
eral who had commanded the forces against 
him at the Brandywine moved Parliament 
again and again to interfere on behalf of the 
French hero, and Charles James Fox, the 
great English orator, pleaded in favor, as he 
said, " of a noble character, which will flourish 
in the annals of tHe world, and live in the 
veneration of posterity, when kings, and 
the crowns they wear, will be no more re- 
garded than the dust to which they must 
return." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 299 

Help finally came from his own land, 
though in a very strange guise. While La- 
f aj^ette lay in his cell at Olmutz a new star was 
rising in the skies, a planet succeeding to the 
confusion of the Reign of Terror in France. 
A Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, was 
winning wonderful laurels as a general. From 
victory he strode to victory, and by the spring 
of 1797 he had broken the power of Austria, 
had crossed the Italian Alps, and in sight of 
the Emperor's capital was ready to dictate the 
terms of the treaty of Campo Formio. Then 
he remembered that a Frenchman, Lafayette, 
was still in an Austrian dungeon. Neither 
Bonaparte nor the Directory that now gov- 
erned France wanted Lafayette to return to 
that country, but both were determined that 
Austria must give him up. Napoleon wrote 
that demand into the treaty. The Austrian 
Emperor objected, but Napoleon insisted and 
finally threatened, and he held the upper hand. 
The Emperor sent an officer to demand a 
written acknowledgment of his past good 
treatment from Lafayette and a promise never 
to enter Austria again. Lafayette refused to 
say anything about his past treatment but 



300 LAFAYETTE 

agreed to the second condition. Dissatisfied 
with this the Austrians represented to General 
Bonaparte that the prisoner had been set free 
and urged him to sign the treaty. Bonaparte 
saw through the ruse. He sent an officer to 
see that Lafayette was liberated, and only 
when he was satisfied of this would he make 
peace with the crafty Emperor. 

On September 17, 1797, Lafayette, after 
five years in prison, walked out of Olmutz with 
his wife and daughters a free man. Even 
then, however, the Emperor did not hand him 
over to the French ; instead he had him deliv- 
ered to the American consul, with the state- 
ment that " Monsieur the Marquis de Lafay- 
ette was released from imprisonment simply 
because of the Emperor's desire to favor and 
gratify America." 

The French Revolution had swept away La- 
fayette's estates and fortune, but his friends 
came to his assistance and helped to provide 
for him. Especially Americans were eager to 
show their appreciation of what he had done 
for their country. Washington, who had been 
caring for Lafayette's son at Mount Vernon, 
now sent him back to Europe, with a letter 



I 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 301 

showing that the great American was as de- 
voted as ever to the great Frenchman. 

Lafayette knew that his liberation was due 
to the brilliant young general, Bonaparte, and 
he wrote a letter to the latter expressing his 
gratitude. But there was considerable jeal- 
ousy in the French government at that time; 
the letter was distasteful to some of the Direct- 
ory, and they took their revenge by confiscat- 
ing the little property that still belonged to 
Lafayette. Two Englishwomen, however, 
had left money to the Frenchman as a tribute 
to his " virtuous and noble character," and this 
enabled him to tide over the period until he 
could get back some of his native estates. 

The Netherlands offered Lafayette a home, 
and he went to the little town of Vianen, near 
Utrecht, to live. Here he wrote many letters 
to his friends in America, studied the amazing 
events that had happened in France since the 
day on which the States-General had first met 
at Versailles, and watched the wonderful 
course of the new leader. Napoleon Bonaparte, 
across the fields of Europe. Bonaparte 
puzzled him ; he was not sure whether the Cor- 
sican was a liberator or a despot; but he saw 



302 LAFAYETTE 

that the General was restormg order to a 
France that was greatly in need of it, and 
hoped that he might accomplish some of the 
ends for which Lafayette and his friends had 
worked. Presently the time came when the 
exile felt that he might safely return to his 
home. 



XV 

IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON 

After the treaty of Campo Formio with 
Austria, which had secured the liberation of 
Lafayette, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to 
Paris the leading man of France. The gov- 
ernment in Paris, which had gone through one 
change after another since the end of the Reign 
of Terror, was now in the hands of what was 
known as the Directory. But the members of 
this, divided in their views, were not very pop- 
ular with the people, who were so tired of dis- 
order that they desired above everything else 
a strong hand at the helm of the state. The 
people were already looking to the brilliant 
young general as such a helmsman, and the Di- 
rectors knew this, and so grew increasingly 
jealous of Bonaparte. 

Having settled his score with Austria Bona- 
parte suggested to the French government 
that he should strike a blow at England by 
invading Egypt. The Directory, glad to have 



304 LAFAYETTE 

him out of the country, agreed to this, and in 
May, 1798, Bonaparte departed on such an 
expedition. As soon as Bonaparte was safely 
away the enemies of France resumed their at- 
tacks, and when the French people saw that 
the Corsican was their surest defender they 
began to clamor more loudly against the Di- 
rectory. Bonaparte kept himself informed of 
what was happening at home, and when he 
thought that the proper moment had come he 
left his army in Egypt and appeared in 
France. His welcome there made it clear that 
the people wanted him for their leader; they 
were weary of turmoil and constant changes in 
government, they were ready for a strong and 
able dictator. 

France had laiown ten years of disorder, 
bloodshed, anarchy, democratic misrule, finan- 
cial ruin, and political failure, and the people 
were no longer so much concerned about lib- 
erty as they had once been. Bonaparte was 
crafty; he pretended that he wanted power in 
order to safeguard the principles that had been 
won in the Revolution. He went to Paris, and 
there, on November 9, 1799, was made First 
Consul, and the real dictator of France. The 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 305 

country was still a republic in name, but at 
once the First Consul began to gather all the 
reins of authority in his own hands. 

Under the Directory Lafayette had been an 
exile, forbidden to enter French territory. 
But with Napoleon in power conditions 
changed. Lafayette felt the greatest grati- 
tude to the man who had freed him from Ol- 
mutz, he had the deepest admiration for the 
general who had won so many brilliant vic- 
tories for France, and he was disposed to be- 
lieve that Napoleon really intended to secure 
liberty for the country. When he heard of 
Napoleon's return from Egypt he wrote to 
his wife, who was in France at the time, " Peo- 
ple jealous of Bonaparte see in me his future 
opponent; they are right, if he wishes to sup- 
press liberty; but if he have the good sense to 
promote it, I will suit him in every respect. 
I do not believe him to be so foolish as to wish 
to be only a despot." 

He also sent a letter to Napoleon, in which 
he said, " The love of liberty and country 
would suffice for your arrival to fill me with 
joy and hope. To this desire for public hap- 
piness is joined a lively and profound senti- 



306 LAFAYETTE 

ment for my liberator. Your greetings to the 
prisoners of Olmutz have been sent to me by 
her whose life I owe to you. I rejoice in all 
my obligations to you, citizen-general, and in 
the happ3^ conviction that to cherish your glory 
and to wish your success is an act of civisni 
as much as of attachment and gratitude." 

Friends procured the exile a passport and 
he returned to Paris. But Bonaparte was not 
glad to have him come back; the First Consul 
was in reality no friend of the principles of the 
Revolution, and he felt that such a man as 
Lafayette must inevitably oppose him and 
might even prejudice the people against him. 
He showed his anger unreservedly when 
friends told him of Lafayette's arrival, and 
the friends immediately advised the latter that 
he had better return to the Netherlands. But 
Lafayette, having made up his mind to come, 
would not budge now. " You should be suf- 
ficiently acquainted with me," he said to the 
men who brought him the news from the First 
Consul, " to know that this imperious and 
menacing tone would suffice to confirm me in 
the course which I have taken." And he 
added, " It would be very amusing for me to 




Lafayette 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 307 

be arrested at night by the National Guard of 
Paris and imprisoned in the Temple the next 
day by the restorer of the principles of 1789." 

Madame Lafayette called on the First Con- 
sul, who received her kindly. She pleaded so 
eloquently for her husband, pointing out his 
natural desire to be in France, that Napoleon's 
anger vanished. He said that he regretted 
Lafayette's return only because it would " re- 
tard his progTess toward the reestablishment 
of Lafayette's principles, and would force him 
to take in sail." " You do not understand me, 
madame," he continued, " but General Lafay- 
ette will understand me; and not having been 
in the midst of affairs, he will feel that I can 
judge better than he. I therefore conjure him 
to avoid all publicity ; I leave it to his patriot- 
ism." Madame Lafayette answered that that 
was her husband's wish. 

Believing that Lafayette had no desire to 
oppose him, Napoleon soon restored him to 
citizenship. Different as the two men were, 
each admired the strong qualities of the other. 
The First Consul could appreciate Lafayette's 
devotion to the cause of liberty, and Lafayette 
said to Napoleon, " I have but one Avish, Gen- 



308 LAFAYETTE 

eral, — a free goT^emment and you at the head 
of it." 

Napoleon, however, had no real liking for a 
free government. He had forgotten any be- 
lief in liberty that he might have had in the 
days when he was a poor and obscure lieu- 
tenant. He had tasted power, and was al- 
ready looking forward to the time when he 
should be not only the most powerful man in 
France but in the whole world. To do that 
he must make his countrymen forget their 
recently won liberties. He must keep Lafay- 
ette, the greatest apostle of freedom, in the 
background, and not allow him to remind the 
people of his liberal dreams. So Napoleon 
adopted a policy of silence toward Lafayette. 
In February, 1800, the celebrated French 
orator Fontanes delivered a public eulogy on 
the character of Washington, who had lately 
died. Napoleon forbade the orator to men- 
tion the name of Lafayette in his address, and 
saw to it that Lafayette was not invited to the 
ceremony, nor any Americans. The bust of 
Washington was draped in banners that the 
First Consul had taken in battle. 

Lafayette's son George applied for and was 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 309 

given a commission in one of Napoleon's regi- 
ments of hussars. When his name was erased 
from the list of exiles Lafayette himself was 
restored to his rank of major-general in the 
French army, but he did not ask for any com- 
mand. He went to Lagrange, an estate that 
his wife had inherited from her mother, and set 
himself to the work of trying to pay off the 
debts that had piled up while he was in prison 
in Austria. Like all the old aristocracy that 
returned to France after the Revolution he 
found that most of his property had been taken 
by the state and now had new owners and that 
the little that was left was burdened by heavy 
taxes. 

Chavaniac and a few acres near it came into 
his possession, but there were relatives who 
needed it as a home more than he did and he 
let them live there. He himself cultivated the 
farm at Lagrange, and was able in a few years 
to pay off his French creditors. But he was 
still greatly in debt to Gouverneur Morris and 
other Americans who had helped his wife with 
money when she had need of it, and these were 
loans that were difficult to pay. 

Lafayette was living quietly on his farm 



310 LAFAYETTE 

when Napoleon returned with fresh triumphs 
from Italy. The man who had been a general 
could not help but admire the great military 
genius of the First Consul. The latter felt 
that he had little now to fear from Lafayette, 
and the relations between the two men became 
quite friendly. Had they only been able to 
work together they might have accomplished a 
great deal for the good of France, but no two 
men could have been more fundamentally dif- 
ferent in their characters and ideals than La- 
fayette and Napoleon. 

Occasionally they discussed their views on 
government, and Lafayette once said to the 
First Consul, " I do not ignore the effect of 
the crimes and follies which have profaned the 
name of liberty; but the French are, perhaps, 
more than ever in a state to receive it. It is 
for you to give it; it is from you that it is ex- 
pected." Napoleon smiled; he had his own 
notions about liberty, and he felt himself strong 
enough to force those notions upon France. 

Yet the First Consul did wish for the good 
opinion and support of Lafayette. It was at 
his suggestion that certain friends urged the 
latter to become a Senator. Lafayette felt 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 311 

tluit, disapproving as he did of some of the 
policies of the new government, he must de- 
cline, and did so, stating his reasons frankly. 
Then Napoleon's minister Talleyrand offered 
to send him as the French representative to the 
United States, but this Lafayette declined also. 
His political views and the need of cultivating 
the farm at Lagrange were sufficient to keep 
him from accepting office. 

Lafayette enjoyed his talks with Napoleon, 
though the latter was often inclined to be 
domineering. Lord Cornwallis came to Paris 
in 1802 to conclude the Treaty of Amiens be- 
tween France and England, and Lafayette 
met his old opponent at dinner at the house of 
Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon. 
The next time Napoleon and Lafayette met 
the former said, " I warn you that Lord Corn- 
wallis gives out that you are not cured yet." 

" Of what? " answered Lafayette. " Is it 
of loving liberty? What could have disgusted 
me with it? The extravagances and crimes of 
the tyranny of the Terror? They only make 
me hate still more every arbitrary system, and 
attach me more and more to my principles." 

Napoleon said seriously, " I should tell you, 



312 LAFAYETTE 

General Lafayette, and I see with regret, that 
by your manner of expressing yourself on the 
acts of this government you give to its enemies 
the weight of your name." 

" What better can I do? " asked Lafayette. 
" I live in retirement in the country, I avoid 
occasions for speaking; but whenever any one 
comes to ask me whether your system is con- 
formant to my ideas of liberty, I shall answer 
that it is not; for, General, I certainly wish to 
be prudent, but I shall not be false." 

" What do you mean," said Napoleon, " with 
your arbitrary system? Yours was not so, I 
admit; but you had against your adversaries 
the resource of riots. ... I observed vou 
carefully. . . . You had to get up riots." 

" If you call the national insurrection of 
July, 1789, a riot," Lafayette answered, " I 
lay claim to that one; but after that period I 
wanted no more. I have repressed many; 
many were gotten up against me; and, since 
you appeal to my experience regarding them, 
I shall say that in the course of the Revolution 
I saw no injustice, no deviation from liberty, 
which did not injure the Revolution itself." 

Napoleon ended the conversation by saying, 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 318 

" After all, I have spoken to you as the head 
of the government, and in this character I have 
cause to complain of you ; but as an individual, 
I should be content, for in all that I hear of 
you, I have recognized that, in spite of your 
severity toward the acts of the government, 
there has always been on your part personal 
good- will toward myself." 

And this in truth expressed Lafayette's 
attitude toward Napoleon, admiration and 
friendship for the General, but opposition to 
the growing love of power of the First Consul. 

That love of power soon made itself mani- 
fest in Napoleon's election to the new office of 
" Consul for life." Meantime Lafayette was 
busy cultivating his farm, work which he 
greatly enjoyed. And to Lagrange came 
many distinguished English and American 
visitors, eager to meet the owner and hear him 
tell of his adventurous career on two con- 
tinents. 

The United States treated him well. While 
he was still in prison at Olmutz he was placed 
on the army list at full pay. Congress voted 
to him more than eleven thousand acres on the 
banks of the Ohio, and when the great terri- 



314 LAFAYETTE 

tory of Louisiana was acquired a tract near the 
city of New Orleans was set aside for him and 
he was informed that the government of 
Louisiana was destined for him. But Madame 
Lafayette's health had been delicate ever since 
those trying days in Austria, and that, com- 
bined with Lafayette's own feeling that he 
ought to remain in France, led him to decline 
the eager invitations that were sent him to 
settle in America. 

Napoleon's star led the Corsican on, far- 
ther and farther away from the path that La- 
fayette hoped he would follow. In May, 1804, 
the man who was " Consul for life " became 
the Emperor of France, and seated himself on 
the most powerful throne in Europe. Lafay- 
ette was tremendously disappointed at this 
step. Again Napoleon's friends made over- 
tures to the General, and the latter's own 
cousin, the Count de Segur, who had wanted 
to go with him to America to fight for free- 
dom, and who was noAv the Grand Master of 
Ceremonies at the new Emperor's court, wrote 
to him asking him to become one of the high 
officers of tlie Legion of Honor. Lafayette 
refused the invitation, and from that time the 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 315 

friendship between him and Napoleon ceased. 
The Emperor had now no use for the lover of 
liberty, and carried his dislike for the latter so 
far that Lafayette's son George, though a 
brave and brilliant officer in the army, was 
forced to resign his commission. 

Napoleon went on and on, his victories over 
all the armies of Europe dazzling the eyes of 
his people. Those who had been aristocrats 
under Louis XVI. and those who had been 
Jacobins during the Reign of Terror were glad 
to accept the smallest favors from the all- 
powerful Emperor. But Lafayette stayed 
away from Paris and gave all his attention to 
his farm, which began to prove productive. 
In his house portraits of his great friends, 
Washington, Franklin, La Rochefoucauld, 
Fox, kept fresh the memory of more stirring 
times. 

But France, and even the Emperor, had not 
forgotten him. Once in an angry speech to 
his chief councilors about the men who had 
brought about the French Revolution, Na- 
poleon exclaimed, " Gentlemen, this talk is not 
aimed at you; I know your devotion to the 
throne. Everybody in France is corrected. I 



316 LAFAYETTE 

was thinking of the only man who is not, — La- 
fayette. He has never retreated an inch." 

And at another time, when a conspiracy 
against the life of the Emperor was discovered. 
Napoleon was inclined to charge Lafayette 
with having been concerned in it. " Don't be 
afraid," said Napoleon's brother Joseph. 
" Wherever there are aristocrats and kings 
you are certain not to find Lafayette." 

Meantime at Lagrange Madame Lafayette 
fell ill and died in December, 1807. No hus- 
band and wife were ever more devoted to each 
other, and Lafayette expressed his feelings in 
regard to her in a letter to his friend Mau- 
bourg. " During the thirty-four years of a 
union, in which the love and the elevation, the 
delicacy and the generosity of her soul charmed, 
adorned, and honored my days," he wrote, " I 
was so much accustomed to all that she was to 
me, that I did not distinguish her from my own 
existence. Her heart wedded all that inter- 
ested me. I thought that I loved her and 
needed her; but it is only in losing her that I 
can at last clearly see the wreck of me that 
remains for the rest of my life; for there only 
remain for me memories of the woman to whom 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 317 

I owed the happiness of every moment, un- 
dimmed by any cloud." 

Madame Lafayette deserved the tribute. 
Never for one moment in the course of all the 
storms of her husband's career had she wavered 
in her loyal devotion to his ideals and interests. 
The little girl who had met him first in her 
father's garden in Paris had stood by him when 
all her family and friends opposed him, had 
been his counselor in the days of the French 
Revolution, and had gone to share his prison 
in Austria. History rarely says enough about 
the devoted wives of the great men who have 
helped the world. No hero ever found greater 
aid and sympathy when he needed it most than 
Lafayette had from his wife Adrienne. 

From his home at Lagrange the true patriot 
of France watched the wonderful course of the 
Emperor of France. It was a course amazing 
in its victories. The men who had been an un- 
drilled rabble in the days of the Revolution 
were now the veterans of the proudest army in 
Europe. The people did not have much more 
liberty than they had enjoyed under Louis 
XVL; they had exchanged one despotic gov- 
ernment for another, but Napoleon fed them 



318 LAFAYETTE 






on victories, dazzled their vision, swept them 
off their feet by his long succession of triumphs. . 

The treaty of Tilsit, made in July, 1807, f ol- f 
lowed the great victories of Eylau and Fried- 
land, which crushed the power of Prussia and 
changed Russia into an ally of France. Na- 
poleon's might reached its zenith then. No 
European nation dared to contest his claim of 
supremacy. He was the ruler of France, of 
Northern Italy, of Eastern Germany; he had 
made Spain a dependency, and placed his 
brothers on the thrones of Holland, Naples, 
and Westphalia. For five years his power re- 
mained at this height. In 1812 he set out to 
invade Russia with an army of five hundred 
thousand men, gathered from half the coun- 
tries of Europe. He stopped at Dresden, and 
kings of the oldest lineage, who only held their 
crowns at his pleasure, came to do homage to 
the little Corsican soldier who had made him- 
self the most powerful man in the world. 
Only one country still dared to resist him, 
England, who held control of the seas, but who 
was feeling the effect of the commercial war 
he was waging against her. 

But the very size of Napoleon's dominion 



POR YOUNG AMERICANS 319 

was a source of weakness. The gigantic power 
he had built up depended on the life and abili- 
ties of one man. No empire can rest for long 
on such a foundation. When Napoleon left 
the greater part of the grand army in the wil- 
derness of Russia and hurried back to Paris 
the first ominous signs of cracks in the founda- 
tion of his empire began to appear. France 
was almost exhausted by his campaigns, but 
the Emperor needed more triumphs and de- 
manded more men. He won more victories, 
but his enemies increased. The French people 
were tired of war ; there came a time when they 
were ready to barter Napoleon for peace. The 
allied armies that were ranged against him oc- 
cupied the hills about Paris in March, 1814, 
and on April fourth of that year the Emperor 
Napoleon abdicated his throne at Fontaine- 
bleau. 

The illness of relatives brought Lafayette 
to Paris at the same time, and seeing the storms 
that again threatened his country he did what 
he could to bring order out of confusion. His 
son and his son-in-law Lasteyrie enlisted in the 
National Guard, and his other son-in-law, 
Maubourg, joined the regular army. When 



320 LAFAYETTE 

the allies entered Paris Lafayette witnessed 
the downfall of the Empire with mixed 
emotions. He had never approved of Na- 
poleon, but he knew that he had at least given 
the country a stable government. And when 
the allies placed the brother of Lafayette's old 
friend Louis XVI. on the throne, with the title 
of Louis XVIIL, he hoped that the new king 
might rule according to a liberal constitution, 
and hastened to offer his services to that 
sovereign. 

The people, tired of Napoleon's wars, want- 
ing peace now as they had wanted it after the 
Revolution, agreed passively to the change of 
rulers. But Louis XVIIL, a true Bourbon, 
soon showed that he had learned nothing from 
the misfortunes of his family. Lafayette met 
the Emperor of Russia in Paris, and the latter 
spoke to him with misgiving of the fact that the 
Bourbons appeared to be returning as obtuse 
and illiberal as ever. " Their misfortunes 
should have corrected them," said Lafay- 
ette. 

"Corrected!" exclaimed the Emperor. 
" They are uncorrected and incorrigible. 
There is only one, the Duke of Orleans, who 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 321 

has any liberal ideas. But from the others ex- 
pect nothing at all." 

Lafayette soon found that was true. The 
new king proved the saying about his family, 
that the Bourbons never learned nor forgot. 
Louis XVIII. was that same Count of Pro- 
vence whom Lafayette had taken pains to of- 
fend at Versailles when he did not want to be 
attached as a courtier to his staff. The King 
remembered that incident, and when Lafay- 
ette offered to serve him now showed his re- 
sentment and anger very plainly. 

Seeing that there was nothing he could do in 
Paris, Lafayette retired again to Lagrange, 
and there watched the course of events. Na- 
poleon, in exile on the island of Elba in the 
Mediterranean, was watching too, and he soon 
saw that France was not satisfied with her new 
sovereign. Agents brought him word that the 
people were only waiting for him to overthrow 
the Bourbon rule, and on March 1, 1815, he 
landed on the shores of Provence with a few 
hundred soldiers of his old Guard to reconquer 
his empire. 

He had judged the situation rightly. As he 
advanced the people rose to greet him, the 



322 LAFAYETTE | 

cities opened their gates, the soldiers sent to 
oppose him rallied to his standard. As Na- 
poleon neared Paris Louis XVIIL fled across 
the frontier. 

Again Lafayette went to the capital. " I 
had no faith in the conversion of Napoleon," 
he said, " and I saw better prospects in the 
awkward and pusillanimous ill-will of the 
Bourbons than in the vigorous and profound 
perversity of their adversary." But he found 
that the people of Paris wanted Napoleon 
again, and he heard with hope that the restored 
Emperor had agreed to a constitution and had 
established a Senate and a Representative As- 
sembly elected by popular vote. These de- 
cisions sounded well, and as a result of them 
Lafayette allowed himself to be elected a mem- 
ber of the Representative Assembly, or Cham- 
ber of Deputies. 

The other nations of Europe were furious 
when they heard of Napoleon's return. They 
collected their armies again and prepared for 
a new campaign. Exhausted though France 
was, the Emperor was able to raise a new army 
of six hundred thousand men. With these he 
tried to defeat his enemies, but on the field of 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 323 

Waterloo on June 18, 1814, he was decisively 
beaten and hurried back to Paris to see what 
could be done to retrieve defeat. 

He found the Chamber of Deputies openly 
hostile; its members wanted him to abdicate. 
He held meetings with the representatives, 
among whom Lafayette now held a chief place. 
At last the Assembly gave Napoleon an hour 
in which to abdicate the throne. Finally he 
agreed to abdicate in favor of his son. The 
Assembly did not want the young Napoleon 
as Emperor, and decided instead on a govern- 
ment by a commission of five men. Napoleon's 
hour was over, his star had set; he was sent a 
prisoner to the far-distant island of St. Helena 
to end his days. 

Lafayette wanted to see the new government 
adopt the ideas he had had in mind when 
France had first wrung a constitution from 
Louis XVI., and would have liked to serve on 
the commission that had charge of the country. 
Instead he was sent to make terms of peace 
with the allied armies that had been fighting 
Napoleon. And while he was away on this 
business the commission in Paris was dicker- 
ing behind his back to restore Louis XVIII. 



324 LAFAYETTE 

The allies had taken possession of the French 
capital with their soldiers, the white flag of the 
Bourbons was everywhere replacing the tri- 
color of the Empire, and when Lafayette re- 
turned he found the King again upon his 
throne. Lafayette was disgusted with what 
he considered the folly and selfishness of the 
rulers of his country; he protested against the 
return of the old autocratic Bourbons, but the 
people were now more than ever eager for 
peace and harmony and accepted meekly 
whomever their leaders gave them. 

Louis XVIII. was a weak, despotic ruler; 
the members of his house were equally narrow- 
minded and overbearing. Lafayete opposed 
their government in every way he could. In 
1819 he was elected a member of the new As- 
sembly, and for four years as a deputy he 
fought against the encroachments of the royal 
power. He took part in a conspiracy to over- 
throw the King, and when his friends cautioned 
him that he was risking his life and his prop- 
erty he answered, " Bah ! I have already lived 
a long time, and it seems to me that I would 
worthily crown my political career by dying 
•on a scaffold in the cause of liberty." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 325 

That conspiracy failed, and although Lafay- 
ette Avas known to have been connected with 
the plot, neither the King nor his ministers 
dared to imprison him or even to call him to 
account. A year later he joined with other 
conspirators against the Bourbons, but again 
the plans failed through blunders. The Cham- 
ber of Deputies attempted to investigate the 
affair, but Lafayette so boldly challenged a 
public comparison of his own and the govern- 
ment's course that the royalists shrank from 
pursuing the matter further. They knew what 
the people thought of their champion and did 
not dare to lay a hand upon him. 

He retired from public life after this second 
conspiracy and went to live with his children 
and grandchildren at his country home of 
Lagrange. From there he wrote often to 
Thomas Jefferson and his other friends in the 
United States. If the Revolution in France 
had failed to bring about that republic he 
dreamed of the struggle in America had at 
least borne good fruits. More and more he 
thought of the young nation across the sea, in 
the birth of which he had played a great part, 
and more and more he wished to visit it again. 



326 LAFAYETTE 

So when he was invited by President Monroe 
in 1824j he gladly accepted, and for the fourth 
time set out across the Atlantic. 



XVI 

THE UNITED STATES WELCOMES THE HERO 

The first half century of American inde- 
pendence was drawing near, and the Congress 
of the United States, mindful of the days when 
Lafayette had offered his sword in defense of 
liberty, voted unanimously that President 
Monroe be requested to invite the General to 
visit America as the guest of the nation. 
President Monroe joyfully acted as Congress 
requested, and placed at Lafayette's service an 
American war-ship. The Frenchman, now 
sixty-seven years old, was eager to accept, but 
he declined the use of the war-ship, and sailed 
instead, with his son George Washington La- 
fayette and his private secretary on the Amer- 
ican merchantman Cadmus, leaving Havre on 
July 13, 1824. 

As he sailed out of Havre the American 
ships in the harbor ran up their flags in his 
honor and fired their guns in salute, an intima- 



328 LAFAYETTE 

tion of the welcome that was awaiting him on 
the other side of the Atlantic. The Cadmus 
reached Staten Island on August fifteenth, 
and the guest landed in the midst of cheering 
throngs. Most of the men who had taken part 
with him in the birth of the country had now 
passed off the scene, and to Americans Lafay- 
ette was a tradition, one of the few survivors 
of the nation's early days of strife and 
triumph. He was no longer the slim and 
eager boy of 1777; he was now a large, stout 
man, slightly lame, but his smile was still the 
same, and so was the delight with which he 
greeted the people. 

The United States had grown prodigiously^ 
in the interval between this visit and his last. 
Instead of thirteen separate colonies there 
were now twenty-four united States. The 
population had increased from three to twelve 
millions. What had been wilderness was now 
ripe farmland; backwoods settlements had 
grown into flourishing towns built around the 
church and the schoolhouse. Agriculture and 
commerce were thriving everywhere, and 
everywhere Lafayette saw signs of the wis- 
dom, honesty, and self-control which had estab- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 329 

lished a government under which men cotdd 
live in freedom and happiness. 

His visit carried him far and wide through 
the United States. From New York he went 
by way of New Haven and Providence to 
Boston, from there to Portsmouth by the old 
colonial road through Salem, Ipswich, and 
Newburyport. From there he returned to 
New York by Lexington, Worcester, Hart- 
ford, and the Connecticut River. The steamer 
James Kent took him to the old familiar scenes 
on the banks of the Hudson, reminding him of 
the day when he and Washington had ridden 
to the house of Benedict Arnold. 

Starting again from New York he traveled 
through New Jersey to Philadelphia, the scene 
of the stirring events of his first visit, and 
thence to Baltimore and Washington. He 
went to Mount Vernon, Yorktown, Norfolk, 
Monticello, Raleigh, Charleston, and Savan- 
nah. In the spring of 1825 he was at New 
Orleans, and from there he ascended the Mis- 
sissippi and Ohio Rivers, sailed up Lake Erie, 
saw the Falls of Niagara, went through Al- 
bany and as far north as Portland, Maine. 
Returning by Lake Champlain he reached 



330 LAFAYETTE 

New York in time for the great celebration of 
the Fourth of July in 1825. He had made a 
very comprehensive tour of the United States. 

The whole of this long journey was one 
triumphal progress. He constantly drove 
through arches bearing the words " Welcome, 
Lafayette!" Every house where he stopped 
became a Mecca for admiring crowds. The 
country had never welcomed any man as it did 
the gallant Frenchman. Balls, receptions, 
dinners, speeches, gifts of every kind were 
thrust upon him; and the leading men of the 
republic were constantly by his side. 

He was present at the laying of the corner- 
stone of the Bunker Hill Monument and heard 
the great oration of Daniel Webster. " For- 
tunate, fortunate man! " exclaimed the orator 
turning toward Lafayette. " With what 
measure of devotion will you not thank God 
for the circumstances of your extraordinary 
life! You are connected with both hemi- 
spheres and with two generations. Heaven 
saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of 
liberty should be conducted, through you, from 
the New World to the Old; and we, who are 
now here to perform this duty of patriotism, 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 331 

have all of us long ago received it from our 
fathers to cherish your name and your virtues. 
You now behold the field, the renown of which 
reached you in the heart of France and caused 
a thrill in your ardent bosom. You see the 
lines of the little redoubt, thrown up by the in- 
credible diligence of Prescott, defended to the 
last extremity by his lion-hearted valor, and 
within which the corner-stone of our monu- 
ment has now taken its position. You see 
where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gard- 
ner, M'Cleary, Moore, and other early patriots 
fell with him. Those who survived that day, 
and whose lives have been prolonged to the 
present hour, are now around you. Some of 
them you have known in the trying scenes of 
the war. Behold, they now stretch forth their 
feeble arms to embrace you! Behold, they 
raise their trembling voices to invoke the bless- 
ing of God on you and yours forever! " 

The welcome he received in New York and 
New England was equaled by that of Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore and the South. At 
Charleston Colonel Huger, the devoted friend 
who had tried to rescue Lafayette from his 
Olmutz prison, was joined with him in demon- 



332 LAFAYETTE 

strations of the people's regard. A great 
military celebration was given in Lafayette's 
honor at Yorktown, and in the course of it a 
box of candles was found which had formed 
part of the stores of Lord Cornwallis, and the 
candles were used to furnish the light for the 
evening's entertainment. 

Lafayette first went to Washington in 
October, 1824. He was met by twenty-five 
young girls dressed in white and a military 
escort. After a short reception at the Capitol 
he was driven to the White House. There 
President Monroe, the members of his cabinet, 
and officers of the army and navy were gath- 
ered to receive him. As the guest of the nation 
entered, all rose, and the President advanced 
and welcomed him in the name of the United 
States. Lafayette stayed in Washington sev- 
eral days and then went to make some visits 
in the neighborhood. 

During his absence Congress met and re- 
ceived a message from the President which set 
forth Lafayette's past services to the country, 
the great enthusiasm with which the people 
had welcomed him, and recommended that a 
gift should be made him which should be 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 338 

worthy of the character and greatness of the 
American nation. Senator Hayne described 
how the rights and pay belonging to his rank 
in the army had never been claimed by Lafay- 
ette and how the land that had been given him 
in 1803 had afterward through a mistake been 
granted to the city of Ncav Orleans. Then 
Congress unanimously passed a bill directing 
the treasurer of the United States to pay to 
General Lafayette, as a recognition of services 
that could never be sufficiently recognized or 
appreciated, the sum of two hundred thousand 
dollars. 

When he returned to Washington he went 
to the Capitol, where Congress received him in 
state, every member springing to his feet in 
welcome to the nation's guest. Henry Clay, 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
held out his hand to the gallant Frenchman. 
" The vain wish has been sometimes indulged," 
said Henry Clay to Lafayette, " that Provi- 
dence would allow the patriot, after death, to 
return to his country and to contemplate the 
immediate changes which had taken place; to 
view the forests felled, the cities built, the 
mountains leveled, the canals cut, the high- 



334 LAFAYETTE 

ways constructed, the progress of the arts, the 
advancement of learning, and the increase of 
population. General, your present visit to 
the United States is a realization of the con- 
soling object of that wish. You are in the 
midst of posterity. Everywhere you must 
have been struck with the great changes, 
physical and moral, which have occurred since 
you left us. Even this very city, bearing a 
venerated name, alike endeared to you and to 
us, has since emerged from the forest which 
then covered its site. In one respect you be- 
hold us unaltered, and this is the sentiment of 
continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent 
affection and profound gratitude to your de- 
parted friend, the Father of his Country, and 
to you, and to your illustrious associates in the 
field and in the Cabinet, for the multiplied 
blessings which surround us, and for the very 
privilege of addressing you which I now ex- 
ercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished 
by more than ten millions of people, will be 
transmitted with unabated vigor down the tide 
of time, through the countless millions who are 
destined to inhabit this continent to the latest 
posterity." 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 385 

Henry Clay was a great prophet as well as 
a great orator. We know now how the affec- 
tion of the United States for Lafayette has 
grown and grown during the century in which 
the republic has stretched from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific and its people increased from ten 
millions to more than a hundred millions. 

In his journey through the country Lafay- 
ette passed through thousands of miles of 
wilderness and had several opportunities to 
renew his old acquaintance with the Indians. 
He had won their friendship during the 
Revolution by his sympathy for all men. Now 
he found that they had not forgotten the young 
chief whom they had called Kayoula. A girl 
of the Southern Creeks showed him a paper she 
had kept as a relic which turned out to be a 
letter of thanks written to her father by La- 
fayette forty-five years before. In western 
New York he met the famous chief Red 
Jacket, who reminded him that it was he who 
had argued the cause of the Indians at the 
council at Fort Schuyler in 1784. Lafayette 
remembered, and it delighted him greatly that 
the Indians were as eager to greet him as their 
white brothers. 



336 LAFAYETTE 

Only one mishap occurred during the many 
journeys which might easily have proved full 
of perils. While ascending the Ohio River 
on his way to Louisville his steamer struck on a 
snag on a dark and rainy night. The boat im- 
mediatel}^ began to fill. Lafayette was hur- 
ried into a small boat and rowed ashore, in 
spite of his protests that he would not leave the 
steamer until he secured a snuff-box that 
Washington had given him. His secretary 
went below and got the snuff-box and his son 
George saved some other articles of value. All 
the party were safely landed, but they had to 
spend some hours on the river-bank with no 
protection from the rain and only a few crack- 
ers to eat. The next morning a freight 
steamer took them off and they proceeded on 
their journey. 

When he was in Washington Lafayette 
made a visit to Mount Vernon, and spent some 
time in the beautiful house and grounds where 
he had once walked with the man whose friend- 
ship had been so dear to him. Like Washing- 
ton, almost all the men of the Revolution had 
departed. The Frenchman found few of the 
soldiers and statesmen he had known then. 



„^ 



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FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 337 

One, however, Colonel Nicholas Fish, who had 
been with him at the storming of the redoubt 
at Yorktown, welcomed him in New York and 
went with him up the Hudson. " Nick," said 
Lafayette, pointing out a certain height to 
Colonel Fish, " do you remember when we used 
to ride down that hill with the Newburgh girls 
on an ox-sled? " Many places along the Hud- 
son served to remind him of incidents of the 
time when Washington had made his head- 
quarters there. 

In New York the Frenchman visited the 
widow of General Montgomery and Mrs. 
Alexander Hamilton. He found some old 
friends in Philadelphia and Baltimore. In 
Boston he saw again the venerable John 
Adams, who had been the second President of 
the country. He went to Thomas Jefferson's 
home of Monticello in Virginia, and passed 
some days with the man whom he revered 
almost as much as he did Washington. With 
Jefferson he talked over the lessons that were 
to be learned from the French Revolution and 
the career of Napoleon. And he met foreign- 
ers in the United States who called to mind the 
recent eventful days in his own land. He 



338 LAFAYETTE 

visited Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, 
at Bordentown in New Jersey. At Baltimore 
he found Dubois Martin, the man who as 
secretary to the Duke de Broglie had helped 
Lafayette to secure the ship in which he had 
first sailed to America. And at Savannah he 
discovered Achille Murat, the son of Joachim, 
the ex-king of Naples, one of the men Na- 
poleon had placed upon a temporary throne, 
and learned that Murat was now cultivating 
an orange-orchard in Florida. 

A man named Haguy came one hundred and 
fifty miles to see the General, and proved to 
be one of the sailors who had crossed on the 
Victory with him and had later fought under 
him in the Continental Army. Here and there 
he found veterans of his campaign in Virginia, 
and Lafayette was as glad to see his old sol- 
diers as they were to welcome him. 

Before he left for Europe John Quincy 
Adams, the son of the second President, was 
elected to succeed Monroe. The new Presi- 
dent invited Lafayette to dine at the White 
House in company with the three ex-Presi- 
dents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, all of 
them old and trusted friends of the French- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 339 

man. What a dinner that must have been, 
with five such men at the table ! 

Perhaps the thing that delighted him most 
in America was the self-reliant independence 
that marked the people everywhere. This 
type of democracy was most inspiring to a 
man who had seen the constant turmoil and 
bickerings of the Revolution and Napoleonic 
era in France. America was young and her 
citizens were too busy developing their country 
to pay much attention to class distinctions or 
the social ambitions that were so prominent in 
Europe. They felt quite able to run their 
government to suit themselves, and it seemed 
to Lafayette that they were working out 
their problems in a most satisfactory man- 
ner. 

In 1824 he witnessed a Presidential election 
with four candidates, Adams, Jackson, Clay, 
and Crawford. Party feelings ran high, and 
there was great excitement. But when the 
election was over the people settled down to 
their work again in remarkable harmony and 
the government continued its course serenely. 
This Lafayette, with his knowledge of other 
countries, regarded as evidence of a most 



340 LAFAYETTE 

unusual genius for self-control in the American 
nation. 

All parties, all classes of men, praised and 
venerated him as they praised and venerated 
the founders of their republic. His tour was 
a tremendous popular success, the greatest 
reception ever given to a guest by the United 
States. It must have made up to him for the 
many disappointments of his career in France. 
And when he sailed for home he knew that the 
country to which he had given all he had in 
youth would never cease to love and honor 
him. 

President John Quincy Adams at the White 
House, standing beside Jefferson, Madison, 
and Monroe, said to Lafayette, " You are ours, 
sir, by that unshaken sentiment of gratitude 
for your services which is a precious portion of 
our inheritance; ours by that tie of love, 
stronger than death, which has linked your 
name for the endless ages of time with the 
name of Washington. At the painful mo- 
ment of parting with you we take comfort in 
the thought that, wherever you may be, to the 
last pulsation of your heart, our country will 
ever be present to your affections. And a 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 341 

cheering consolation assures us that we are not 
called to sorrow, — most of all that we shall see 
your face no more, — for we shall indulge the 
pleasing anticipation of beholding our friend 
again. In the name of the whole people of 
the United States, I bid you a reluctant and 
affectionate farewell." 

An American frigate, named the Brandy- 
wine, in compliment to Lafayette's first blow 
for liberty in America, carried the guest of 
the nation back to France. And the memory 
of that visit, and of what it stood for, has been 
kept green in American history ever since. 



XVII 

THE LOVER OF LIBERTY 

The frigate Brandywine reached Havre on 
October 5, 1825. The French people had 
heard of the wonderful reception given Lafay- 
ette by the United States and now they, in 
their turn, wanted to welcome the returning 
hero of liberty. But the Bourbon king who 
sat on the throne of France and the royalists 
disliked Lafayette so much that they did their 
best to prevent the people from greeting him. 
It was only after a long discussion that the 
forts of the harbor at Havre were permitted to 
return the salute of the Brandywine, and at 
Rouen, while citizens were serenading their 
hero beneath the windows of the house where 
he was staying, officials of the government 
ordered a troop of soldiers to charge upon the 
crowd and disperse it with drawn swords. The 
people, however, insisted on honoring their 
famous fellow-countryman. Thej^ as well as 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 343 

the Bourbon king, saw in him the patriot and 
champion of independence. Louis XVIII. 
had been succeeded on the throne by his 
brother, Charles X., and the latter said of La- 
fayette, " There is a man who never changes." 
And the people knew this, and honored the 
General for his lifelong devotion to their cause. 

He went back to his quiet family life at 
Lagrange. Prominent statesmen came to him 
for advice, but he rarely went to Paris. The 
nobility had been restored to their ancient so- 
cial standing, and Lafayette was urged to 
resume his title of marquis. He refused to do 
this, however, and the refusal embittered the 
royalists even more against him. The Bourbon 
government feared his influence in 1825, just 
as the aristocrats had feared it in 1785, the 
Jacobins in 1795, and NaxDoleon in 1805. 

Yet Charles X. could not always conceal the 
fact that he had a strong personal liking for 
the old republican. One day in 1829 the 
newspapers announced that Lafa^^ette was ill. 
The King met several members of the Cham- 
ber of Deputies. " Have you any news of 
Monsieur de Lafayette? " asked King Charles. 
" How is he? " 



344 LAFAYETTE 

" Much better, sire," answered a de]^ut3^ 
" Ah ! I am very glad of it ! " said the King. 
" That is a man whom I like much, and who 
has rendered services to our family that I do 
not forget. We have always encountered each 
other, although moving in opposite directions ; 
we were born in the same year; we learned to 
ride on horseback together at the Versailles 
riding-school, and he belonged to my bureau 
in the Assembly of the Notables. I take a 
great deal of interest in him." 

King Charles and his friends, however, paid 
no attention to the new spirit that was awake 
in France. The people had won a constitu- 
tion, but the King tried to limit it as far as he 
could and to override it in some ways. He 
roused the resentment of the country by trying 
to bring back the old extravagance of his 
ancestors, and he even dared to attempt to 
intimidate the Chamber of Deputies. In 1829 
he dissolved the National Assembly and ap- 
pointed as ministers men who had won the 
hatred of the nation for their autocratic views. 
The gauntlet was thrown down between king 
and people, and the latter were not slow to 
pick it up. 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 345 

At this time Lafayette happened to be 
traveling to Chavaniac, where his son now 
lived. He was greeted at every town with the 
usual marks of respeet. At Puy he was given 
a public dinner, and toasts were drunk to " The 
charter, to the Chamber of Deputies, the hope 
of France!" When he reached the city of 
Grenoble he was met by a troop of horsemen, 
who escorted him to the gates. There citizens 
presented him with a crown of oak leaves made 
of silver " as a testimony of the gratitude of 
the people, and as an emblem of the strength 
with which the inhabitants of Grenoble, fol- 
lowing his example, will sustain their rights 
and the constitution." 

All along his route he was greeted with 
cheers and expressions that showed the people 
looked to him to protect their rights. At 
Lyons a speaker protested against the recent 
unlawful acts of the King and spoke of the 
situation as critical. " I should qualify as 
critical the present moment," Lafayette re- 
plied, " if I had not recognized everywhere on 
my journey, and if I did not perceive in this 
powerful city, the calm and even scornful firm- 
ness of a great people which knows its rights. 



a46 LAFAYETTE 

feels its strength, and will be faithful to its 
duties." 

Through the winter of 1829-30 the hostile 
attitude of Charles X. to his people continued. 
The new Chamber of Deputies was rebellious, 
and again the King dissolved it and ordered 
fresh elections. The country elected new 
deputies who were even more opposed to the 
King than the former ones had been. Then 
King Charles, urged on by his ministers, re- 
solved to take a decisive step, to issue four 
edicts revoking the liberty of the press and 
taking from the deputies their legal powers. 
" Gentlemen," said the King to his ministers 
as he signed the edicts, " these are grave 
measures. You can count upon me as I count 
upon you. Between us, this is now a matter 
of life and death." 

The King had virtually declared war on the 
country. The country answered by taking up 
arms. The royal troops in Paris, moving to 
take control of important points in the city, 
were met by armed citizens who fought them in 
the streets. Marmont, head of the King's 
military household, sent word to Charles, " It 
is no longer a riot, it is a revolution. It is 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 347 

urgent that your Majesty should adopt meas- 
ures of pacification. The honor of the crown 
may yet be saved ; to-morrow perhaps it will be 
too late." 

King Charles paid no heed. The citizens 
defeated the royal troops, and in a few days 
had them besieged in their headquarters. Then 
the deputies turned to Lafayette and urged 
him to accept the position of commander of 
the National Guard, the same position he had 
held many years before. " I am invited," he 
answered, ** to undertake the organization of 
the defense. It would be strange and even 
improper, especially for those who have given 
former pledges of devotion to the national 
cause, to refuse to answer the appeals ad- 
dressed to them. Instructions and orders are 
demanded from me on all sides. My replies 
are awaited. Do you believe that in the pres- 
ence of the dangers which threaten us im- 
mobility suits my past and present life? No! 
My conduct at seventy-three years of age shall 
be what it was at thirty-two." 

Lafayette took command of the Guards and 
quickly had the city of Paris in his possession. 
Only then did King Charles, fearing alike for 



348 LAFAYETTE 

his crown and his life now, consent to sign a 
new ordinance revoking his former edicts. 
Commissioners brought the ordinance of the 
King to Lafayette at the Hotel de Ville. " It 
is too late now," Lafayette declared. " We 
have revoked the ordinances ourselves. Charles 
X. has ceased to reign." 

The question now was as to the new form 
of government for the country. The people 
still remembered the days of the Reign of 
Terror and were not ready for a real republic. 
The Duke of Orleans, who had opposed King 
Charles, was very popular, and it was decided 
to appoint him lieutenant-general of the na- 
tion. The people would have liked to have 
Lafayette as their governor. The French 
captain of the ship that carried the fugitive 
Charles X. away from France, said to the ex- 
King, " If Lafayette, during the recent events, 
had desired the crown, he could have obtained 
it. I myself was a witness to the enthusiasm 
that the sight of him inspired among the 
people." 

But Lafayette did not want the crown, nor 
even to be the constitutional head of the nation. 
It seemed to him best that the Duke of Or- 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 349 

leans should receive the crown, not as an in- 
heritance, but as a free gift of the people 
accompanied by proper limitations. So he 
took steps to have the country accept the Duke 
as its new ruler. 

The people of France had at last become an 
important factor in deciding on their own form 
of government. The Duke of Orleans, better 
known as Louis Philippe, did not seize the 
crown, as earlier kings had done; he waited 
until the Chamber of Deputies and Lafayette, 
representing the nation, offered it to him, and 
then he accepted it as a republican prince. 
The deputies marched with the Duke to the 
Hotel de Ville, and as they went through the 
streets there were more shouts of *' Vive la 
liberie ! " than there were of " Vive le Due 
d'Orleans ! " Liberty meant far more to the 
people now than a king did, and Prince Louis 
Philippe knew it. As he went up the stairs 
of the Hotel de Ville he said conciliatingly to 
the armed men among whom he passed, " You 
see a former National Guard of 1789, who has 
come to visit his old general." 

Lafayette had always wanted a constitu- 
tional monarchy for France; he knew Louis 



350 LAFAYETTE 

Philippe well, being allied to him through 
marriage with the Noailles family, and he be- 
lieved that the Duke would make a capable 
ruler, his authority being limited by the will of 
the people. So when Louis Philippe came to 
him at the Hotel de Ville Lafayette placed a 
tricolored flag in the Duke's hand, and leading 
him to a window, embraced him in full sight of 
the great throng in the street. The people 
had been undecided; they did not altogether 
tiTist any royal prince; but when they saw 
Lafayette's act, they immediately followed 
his lead, and cheers for the constitution and 
the Duke greeted the men at the window. 

Lafayette had given France her new ruler, 
declining the crown for himself, even as Wash- 
ington had done in the United States. He 
made it clear to the new king that he expected 
him to rule according to the laws. He said to 
Louis Philippe, " You know that I am a re- 
publican and that I regard the Constitution of 
the United States as the most perfect that 
has ever existed." 

" I think as you do," answered Louis 
Philippe. "It is impossible to have passed 
two years in America and not to be of that 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 351 

opinion. But do you believe that in the pres- 
ent situation of France and in accordance with 
general opinion that it would be proper to 
adopt it? " 

"No," said Lafayette; "what the French 
people want to-day is a popular throne sur- 
rounded by republican institutions." 

" Such is my belief," Louis Philippe agreed. 

Charles X. had fled from his kingdom before 
liafayette and the people even as his brother 
Louis XVIIL had once fled from it before 
Napoleon and the people. On August 9, 1830, 
the Duke of Orleans entered the Palais Bour- 
bon, where the Chambers were assembled, as 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and left it 
as Louis Philippe, King of the French. The 
constitution which he had sworn to obey was 
not, like former charters, a favor granted by 
the throne, but was the organic law of the land, 
to the keeping of which the sovereign was as 
much bound as the humblest of his subjects. 
Lafayette and the people had at last won a 
great victory for independence after all the 
ups and downs of the Revolution and the days 
of Napoleon. 

As Lafayette marched his reorganized 



852 LAFAYETTE 

National Guard, thirty thousand strong, in 
review before the King, it was clear that the 
General was the most popular, as well as the 
most powerful, man in France. And at the 
public dinner that the city of Paris gave him 
on August fifteenth, when he congratulated his 
fellow-citizens on the success and valor with 
which they had defended their liberties and 
besought them to preserve the fruits of victory 
by union and order, he could justly feel that a 
life devoted to the cause of freedom had not 
been spent in vain. 

The coming years were to show that the 
people of France had much yet to learn about 
self-government, but when one contrasts the 
results of the revolution of 1830 with that of 
1789 one sees how far they had progressed in 
knowledge. 

Lafayette's presence was needed at Louis 
Philippe's court to act as a buffer between the 
sovereign and the people, and again and again 
he saw revealed the truth of the old adage, 
" Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 
Presently a revolution in Belgium left the 
throne of that country vacant and it was of- 
fered to Lafayette. " What would I do with 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 353 

a crown ! " he exclaimed. " Why, it would 
suit me about as much as a ring would become 
a cat!" 

The duties of his office as Commander of 
the National Guard, the tact that was con- 
stantly required of him as intermediary be- 
tween the people and the royal court began to 
wear upon him, and he soon resigned his posi- 
tion as Commander. Then, as a member of 
the Chamber of Deputies, he continued his 
political labors. In time he saw many inci- 
dents that pointed in the direction of new 
aggressions on the part of the King, and he 
even came to believe that the fight for liberty 
was not yet Avon and never would be so long 
as a Bourbon occupied the throne of France. 
But he wanted the desired end to be reached by 
peaceful means, constantly preached loyalty 
to the government they had founded as the 
chief duty of the nation, and when, in 1832, a 
new revolution seemed imminent he would have 
no part in it and by his indignant words 
quickly brought the attempt to an end. He 
was now seventy-seven years old and great- 
grandchildren played about his knees at his 
home at Lagrange. 



354 LAFAYETTE 

His work for France and for America and 
for the world was done. In the spring of 1884 
he caught a severe cold, which sapped his 
strength. On May twentieth of that year he 
died, having worked almost to the last on 
problems of government. As his funeral 
^vound through the streets of Paris to the little 
cemetery of Picpus, in the center of the city, a 
great throng followed. On that day church- 
bells tolled in France, Belgium, Poland, 
Switzerland, and England. All nations that 
loved liberty honored the great apostle of it. 
In the United States the government and the 
army and navy paid to Lafayette's memory 
the same honors they had given to Washing- 
ton, the Congress of the United States went 
into mourning for thirty days and most of 
the people of the nation followed its ex- 
ample. America vowed never to forget the 
French hero; and America never has. 

Men have sometimes said that Lafayette's 
enthusiasm was too impulsive, his confidence 
in others too undiscriminating, his goal too far 
beyond the reach of his times; but these were 
the marks of his own sincere and ardent nature. 
He Avas remarkably consistent in all the sudden 



FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 355 

shif tings of an age full of changes. Other men 
had sought favor of the Jacobins, of Napoleon, 
and of Louis XVIII. as each came into power; 
but Lafayette never did. All men knew 
where he stood. As Charles X. said of him, 
" There is a man who never changes." He 
stood fast to his principles, and by standing 
fast to them saw them ultimately succeed. 

He was a man who made and held strong 
friends. Washington, Jefferson, and Fox 
loved him as they loved few others. Napoleon 
and Charles X. could not resist the personal 
attraction of this man whom neither could 
bribe and whom both feared. Honesty was 
the key-note of his character, and with it went 
a simplicity and generosity that drew the ad- 
miration of enemies as well as of friends. 

He had done a great deal for France, he had 
done as much for the United States. He was 
a man of two countries and two revolutions; 
and never once, throughout the difficult course 
of events in which he played a leading part, did 
he swerve from his high ideal of liberty. The 
world loves a knight-errant, and such was this 
boy of Chavaniac, this brother-in-arms of 
Washington, this commander of the National 



356 LAFAYETTE 

Guard of France, this patriot who suffered un- 
prisonment and exile, this friend of the Rights 
of Man. The United States took Lafayette as 
one of its heroes early in its career; it has cher- 
ished him ever since; his love of liberty has 
been a bond that has united two great nations 
in friendship and admiration. He was the 
great apostle of freedom and justice, one of 
the truest servants of men in the annals of his- 
tory. 



THE END 



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